An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England on Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, emergency services said.
At least 32 casualties 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 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 Royal National Lifeboat Institution 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” following the collision.
“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, according to ship-tracking site Vessel Finder. The cargo vessel, container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
A 2023 memo from tanker manager Crowley shows that Stena Immaculate was part of a fleet of vessels that could be used as fuel transports for the U.S. military.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. GMT. The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 250 kilometres north of London.
The United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, is aware of the situation and is checking further, it said.
U.K. 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.
