All 37 crew were brought ashore in a rescue operation which was started after a ship collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea. Local lawmaker Graham Stuart said that the collision triggered a major rescue operation by lifeboats, coast guard aircraft and commercial vessels. "All 37 crew members aboard the two vessels were safe and accounted for, with one hospitalised," he said.
Stuart said he was concerned “about the potential ecological impact” of the spill. As per the information from ship-tracking site VesselFinder, the US-flagged chemical and oil products tanker MV Stena Immaculate was at anchor near the port of Grimsby on Monday morning after sailing from Greece.
The cargo vessel, the Portugal-flagged container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Earlier, the emergency services said that an oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England on Monday. The collision triggered massive fire on both ship and tanker.
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 life boat 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.
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.
With AP Inputs
