Britain’s coast guard said it was “coordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel,” and that a fire had broken out.
A container ship collided with a U.S.-flagged oil tanker off the northeastern coast of England, according to emergency responders, who scrambled to the scene on Monday morning. Initial images shared by the BBC showed fire and thick black smoke rising from the ships, and local authorities said that a number of people had been taken to area hospitals.
The British coast guard said it was “coordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire,” and that an alarm was first raised at 9:48 a.m. local time.
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Rescue helicopters were in the area, and lifeboats were deployed from a number of stations along the coast, as well as vessels with “firefighting capability,” the coast guard said in a statement.
Although the coast guard did not confirm whether an oil spill had taken place, it said that it was assessing “the likely counter pollution response required.”
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that coordinates lifeboats around the British coast, said there were reports “that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision, and there were fires on both ships.”
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
