A cargo ship carrying nearly £300 million worth of supercars has sunk off the Azores Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean after a fire spread among the electric batteries.

Marine Industry News reports that Felicity Ace‘s cargo is said to be some 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Lamborghinis and Bentleys.

The Panama-flagged ship caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean last month, while travelling from Embden, Germany to Rhode Island, US. All 22 crew members were safely evacuated on the same day.

The report says the lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles on board kept the fire burning. Firefighters were only able to tackle the fire from the outside by cooling down the ship’s structure as it was too dangerous to go onboard. They also couldn’t use water, because traditional water extinguishers do not stop lithium-ion batteries from burning.

The Felicity Ace listed to starboard and then sank while being towed.

(Picture courtesy of Marine Group Kenya’s Twitter feed)