Port chief says 32 people brought ashore after ships collide and catch fire in the North Sea
Port chief says 32 people brought ashore after ships collide and catch fire in the North Sea
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, emergency services said.
At least 32 people were brought ashore, but their condition was not immediately clear.
Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said 13 casualties were brought in on a Windcat 33 high-speed vessel, followed by another 19 on a harbor pilot boat.
Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said several lifeboats and a coast guard rescue helicopter were dispatched to the scene in the North Sea, along with a coast guard plane and nearby vessels with firefighting capability.
The RNLI lifeboat agency said “there were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships.” It said three lifeboats were working on search and rescue at the scene alongside the coast guard.
Video footage aired by the BBC and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships.
Boyers, the port chief, said he had been told there was “a massive fireball.”
“It’s too far out for us to see – about 10 miles – but we have seen the vessels bringing them in,” he said. “They must have sent a mayday out. Luckily there was a crew transfer vessel out there already. Since then, there has been a flotilla of ambulances to pick up anyone they can find.”
The tanker, believed to be the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, was at anchor at the time after sailing from Greece, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The cargo vessel, Portugal-flagged container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Coast guards said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles north of London.’
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was being kept up to date on the developing situation
“I want to thank all emergency service workers involved for their continued efforts in responding to the incident,” she said.
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