An oil tanker and a cargo vessel collided off the British coast in the North Sea on Monday, the U.K. coast guard said.
The scene was one of chaos in video footage published by The Guardian newspaper, with both vessels — reported to be the U.S.-flagged tanker MV Stena Immaculate and the Portugal-registered Solong container ship — apparently on fire and sending thick black smoke billowing into the grey North Sea sky.
The U.K.'s PA Media newswire reported that 32 casualties had been brought ashore at the Lincolnshire port town of Grimsby, around 60 miles southeast of the city of York.
"I'm concerned to hear of the collision between two vessels in the North Sea this morning and am liaising with officials and HM Coastguard as the situation develops," said U.K. transport minister Heidi Alexander in a post on X.
"I want to thank all emergency service workers involved for their continued efforts in responding to the incident," she added.
While NBC News has been unable to independently verify that information, the nonprofit Royal National Lifeboat Institution said in a statement that four lifeboat crews had been called to support two ships after they had collided off the East Yorkshire coast early Monday.
“There were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships,” the RNLI said in a media statement.
It added that at shortly before midday local time, while its Cleethorpes crew had been called back, three more crews from Bridlington, Mablethorpe and Skegness continued to support search and rescue efforts.
The BBC reported that chief executive of Stena Bulk, Erik Hanell, had confirmed that all the crew of the Stena Immaculate — more than 20 people — had been accounted for and were safe.
The Stena Immaculate had been sailing from the Greek port of Agioi Theodori, near Athens, while the Solong had just left the nearby British port of Immingham and was on its way to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, according to Marine Traffic maritime analytics provider.
His Majesty’s Coastguard, which acts as the United Kingdom's national maritime emergency service, earlier said it was coordinating a response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire in England.
It said an alarm was raised alerting the agency to the incident at 9:48 a.m. local time (5:48 a.m. ET).
A coast guard rescue helicopter was last being dispatched to respond to the collision, the British government's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said in a media statement.
It added that a coast guard aircraft and nearby vessels with "fire-fighting capability" were also being deployed.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News:
