FRENCH navy commandos seized the Rainbow Warrior II early today shortly after the Greenpeace ship entered French waters off Mururoa Atoll, site of planned French nuclear tests.
The commandos in black helmets and jumpsuits fired tear gas as they boarded the ship and took the crew off the vessel at 5.45 am New Zealand time, Greenpeace spokesman Nellie Pejeault said in Paris. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The ship's voyage was aimed at calling world attention to French plans to abandon a three-year-old moratorium and hold eight more nuclear test blasts beginning in September. The plans, announced in June by conservative President Jacques Chirac, have sparked widespread protest by governments and activists.
The French seized the ship on the 10th anniversary of the bombing by French agents of the original Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, which killed a photographer on board.
The Rainbow Warrior II and two companion vessels were trying to reach the atoll for the anniversary, to be marked by protests in Auckland and Sydney.
Barely 45 minutes after entering France's 20-kilometre exclusion zone, French commandos from warships tailing the Greenpeace ship boarded the vessel. The crew aboard locked cabin doors and windows to slow their advance.