A U.S.-flagged oil tanker and a cargo ship were in a collision off the coast of eastern England in the North Sea on Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, officials said. An English port boss said at least 32 people have been brought ashore, but some of their conditions were unclear.
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. Boyers 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 was identified as the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, Stena Bulk CEO Erik Hanell confirmed to CBS News.
Hanell, whose company co-owns the ship with its U.S. partner Crowley, told BBC News that the crew of more than 20 people was safe and accounted for.
Hanell told BBC News it was too early to speculate on what caused the collision.
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 BBC News and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships.
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.
According to the BBC, MV Stena Immaculate was en route from Agio Theodoroi in Greece to Killingholme in the U.K. It is one of just 10 oil tankers enlisted in a U.S. government program designed to supply the armed forces with fuel during times of armed conflict or national emergency, the BBC reported.
The coast guard agency said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. local time. The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles north of London.
Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images
