OSLO: The helmsman of a huge container ship that ran aground in Norway just a stone`s throw away from a cabin as its owner slept was probably asleep as well at the time of the accident, Norwegian media reported on Friday.

`Only one person was on the bridge at the time. He was steering the vessel, but didn`t change course when entering the Trondheim fjord as he should have,` the news agency NTB reported. `Police have received information from others who were on board that he was asleep,` police official Kjetil Bruland Sorensen told NTB.

The 135-metre (443-foot) NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just metres from Johan Helberg`s wooden cabin around dawn on Thursday. Helberg discovered the unexpected visitor only when a panicked neighbour who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up andcalled him on the phone.

`The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don`t like to open,` Helberg told television channel TV2. His neighbour, Jostein Jorgensen, said he was roused at around Sam by the sound of a ship heading at full speed toward land and immediately ran to Helberg`s house.

None of the cargo`s 16 crew members were injured, and Norwegian police have opened an investigation. `We are aware of the police stating that they have one suspect, and we continue to assist the police and authorities in their ongoing investigation,` the NCL shipping group said.

`We are also conducting internal inquiries but prefer not to speculate further,` it added. Efforts to refloat the ship have failed so far, and the massive red and green container ship remained stuck, looming over the small cabin.-AFP