A cargo ship in Brazilian waters believed to be carrying brand new Scott bicycles has lost a number of containers overboard, some of which are now being looted by locals with boats of their own.

Posted to Facebook over the weekend a video emerged showing the ship in trouble having lost a portion of its cargo overboard. Around 45 of the ship’s containers are believed to have gone overboard.

A pile of recovered bikes - look like Scott hardtails to us....

Looters are being pursued by Sao Paulo police after the bikes floated back to the surface and were scooped up by the local fishermen. We don't yet know how the incident occurred, but a video shows a stricken looking boat in choppy waters, tipping containers toward the ocean. Local media said the Brazilian-registered ship, the Log-In Pantanal, unloaded 248 containers at the Port of Santos on Thursday and took 341 on board. Eyewitnesses told reporters that some of the containers had burst open on impact with the water.

Information from the BBC says that an investigation is underway but it is believed the incident occurred due to bad weather. Other items lost include hospital equipment, air conditioning units and other white goods. 

There could be a fair few new bikes on the local streets now.....