Norwegian man sleeps through massive container ship ploughing into his garden
The 135-metre container ship ran aground around 5am local time on Thursday in Byneset, west of Trondheim.
But Johan Helberg had no idea how close his house had come to disaster until he was woken by a neighbour.
'I didn't hear anything. I was sleeping seven meters from the bow,' he told Norwegian media NRK.
'It was lucky that it went ashore there. Five metres further south, and it would have entered the bedroom. And that wouldn't have been particularly pleasant.'
Mr Helberg's neighbour Jostein Jorgensen said he woke up to the sound of a ship on the fjord.
'I looked out the window and saw a boat heading straight for shore,' he told NRK. 'I went out and cawed and shouted and whistled without anything happening.'
Mr Jorgensen said he then rushed over to Mr Helberg's house to try to wake him up.
'We woke up to the neighbour loudly ringing the doorbell. He said, 'haven't you seen the ship?'' Mr Helberg said.
'I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship,' he told the Guardian. 'I had to bend my neck to see the top of it. It was so unreal.'
The cargo ship had 16 people on board when it ran aground, NRK reports, and no injuries were reported. Local police have started an investigation into the incident, and they told the news outlet there was one suspect.
Police have conducted initial interviews with the ship's crew, and on Friday two Norwegian media outlets are reporting the possible reason for the crash was that a person fell asleep.
Police had previously ruled out drugs or alcohol as factors in the crash.
While the investigation continues, so too does work to move the ship.
An attempt on Thursday morning to refloat the ship was unsuccessful, and a second attempt was planned for Thursday evening at the next high tide.
Bente Hetland, CEO of the shipping company North Sea Container Line, told NRK that the ship had been in incidents before, but it has been sailing the Norwegian coast for 15 years. Ms Hetland said there had been no previous major incidents that had harmed the crew or the environment.
Mr Helberg said he believed it would take some time for the ship to be refloated.
'I am very excited to see how they are going to get this ship off, it will probably require a lot of effort,' he said.
"It's a very bulky new neighbour but it will soon go away," he added, the BBC reports.
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