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A man in Norway awoke early Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone's throw from his fjord-side house -- and he had slept through the commotion.
For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135-metre (443-foot) NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just metres from Johan Helberg's house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway.
Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbour who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called 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 5:00 am by the sound of a ship heading at full speed toward land and immediately ran to Helberg's house.
"I was sure that he was already outside, but no, there was no sign of life. I rang the doorbell many times and nothing... And it was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him," Jorgensen told TV2.
Several hours later, the massive red and green container ship was still stuck near the wooden house, waiting to be refloated.
"It's a very bulky new neighbour, but it will soon go away," an amused Helberg said.
None of the 16 crew members were injured in the incident, the cause of which is being investigated by Norwegian police.