Britain’s coastguard has launched an emergency response after a collision between an oil tanker and cargo vessel in the North Sea, off England’s northeastern coast.
The UK coastguard said it has sent a helicopter and lifeboats from nearby towns, as well as “vessels with fire-fighting capability,” to respond to the incident.
“A coastguard rescue helicopter from Humberside was called, alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe [sic] and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with firefighting capability,” it said.
The incident is believed to involve a US-flagged tanker called the Stena Immaculate, which was at anchor off the coast near the city of Hull, and a container ship called the Solong -which is sailing under the flag of Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal – according to the ship tracking tool VesselFinder.
A flurry of high-speed ships and a tugboat were seen moving towards the site of the collision at the time of the coastguard’s rescue operation, real-time data from VesselFinder showed.
