Workers recover 15,000 crabs after lorry crashes into field

About 15,000 crabs have been recovered after the truck they were travelling in tipped into a field in Inishowen, County Donegal.

The crustaceans, which were worth about €60,000 (£52,000) and bound for shops and restaurants in Portugal, spilled from aluminium containers after the crash near Carrickmaquigley in Redcastle at about 07:30 local time on Monday.

The road between Quigley's Point and Moville was closed for 18 hours while a large recovery operation, featuring night lights and a hydraulic crane, was under way.

The driver of the lorry was not injured in the crash.

Crabs, as well as some lobsters and oysters, had been caught by fishermen in Lough Foyle and were en route from Greencastle to Rosslare Port in County Wexford when the crash happened.

The story first appeared on the Donegal Daily website.

McLaughlin's Light and Heavy Recovery Services based in Burnfoot was contacted by a company in Portugal and helped to reload the container and recover the vehicle from the road.

Odhran McLaughlin said it was one of the more "unusual" call outs they've had.

"It was like nothing we've ever dealt with before," he told BBC News NI.

McLaughlin said a salvage team of 10 worked from 13:00 local time on Monday until 05:00 on Tuesday morning to save the load.

He said recovering the "precious cargo" was a priority, and staff worked tirelessly to put the crustaceans back into bags and get them refrigerated.

He estimated that they were able to save 95% of the crabs which had spilled out, and they were sent on to Portugal.