The Metropolitan Police service, Lord Clarke said, "was ill-prepared" for the accident, with no specific plan to deal with a major river disaster and few rescue craft available.

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Nigel Byard at IACC, which features about 70 different local traders and craft makers, said the business had managed to keep the river out, but trade had suffered.

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The finished craft -- which has just been opened to the public on the Merwede River in the Dutch town of Dordrecht -- is 300 cubits long (about 450 feet or 137 meters), 50 cubits wide (about 70 feet or 21 meters), and 30 cubits high (about 45 feet or 14 meters).

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