A burnt-out freighter with almost 4,000 cars from the VW Group sank in rough seas in the Atlantic on Tuesday.

This was confirmed by the Portuguese Navy at the request of the German Press Agency.

Recently, heavy seas had made it difficult to salvage the ship.

The freighter was to be towed to either Europe or the Bahamas.

The fire on the "Felicity Ace" broke out on February 16 in the Azores.

The 22-man crew had been saved.

Most of the cars on board, destined for the US market, were already destroyed or badly damaged by the fire.

According to a Dutch salvage company, the fire went out on its own on Thursday last week.

The carmaker did not provide information on how many new cars of which brands were affected by the fire.

Media reports also mentioned models from Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini.

The 200 meter long ship was on its way from Emden to Davisville in the US state of Rhode Island when the fire broke out for reasons that are still unknown.

The freighter then drifted in the Atlantic for a week and was then hooked up by a tugboat.