Titanic debris under UNESCO protection

The wreck of the Atlantic liner Titanic will this month come under UNESCO protection, as it has now lain at the bottom of the Atlantic for 100 years, Ottawa citizen reported, citing the UN cultural body Thursday.

The British liner sank in international waters and so comes under no state's protection but, after a century, wrecks fall under the jurisdiction of a 2009 UN Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.

"From now on, state parties to the convention can outlaw the destruction, pillage, sale and dispersal of objects found at the site," UNESCO said, in a statement from its Paris headquarters.

"They can take all possible measures within their power to protect the wreck and ensure that the human remains there are treated with dignity," it said.

The passenger liner Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, sinking to almost 4,000 metres in waters off Newfoundland on the night of April 14, 1912, with the loss of 1,514 people on board.