LONDON — The head of a port in England reported that over 20 individuals have been brought to land following a crash between an oil tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea.
Martyn Boyers, the CEO of the Port of Grimsby East, mentioned that 13 people were rescued using a Windcat 33 vessel, with another 10 being saved by a harbor pilot boat.
He said some crew were still unaccounted for,
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A collision between an oil tanker and a cargo ship occurred off the eastern coast of England on Monday, causing both vessels to catch fire and leading to a large-scale rescue mission carried out by emergency services.
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.
Video footage aired by the BBC and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships.
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. (0948 GMT). The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of London.
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