Watch live as cargo ship 'expected to sink' as scale of damage in crash revealed

A burning cargo ship which crashed in the North Sea is expected to sink, Transport Minister minister Mike Kane has told MPs.

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A burning cargo ship which crashed in the North Sea is expected to sink, Transport Minister minister Mike Kane has told MPs.

Portuguese vessel Solong is drifting after a collision with US tanker Stena Immaculate off the east coast of Yorkshire on Monday.

Transport minister Mike Kane told MPs that Solong "continues to burn" and the Coastguard has said "it is unlikely the vessel will remain afloat.”

A live stream at the top of this page shows the ship as emergency services remain on scene.

Aerial images show the extent of the damage to both ships.

The damage to the Stena Immaculate

Getty Images

The damage to the still smouldering Solong

AFP via Getty Images

Mr Kane added that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is "working at pace to determine exactly what cargo the Solong is carrying".

Mr Kane said the "working assumption" is one crew member from the container ship has died, after a search and rescue operation was ended on Monday when "the chances of their survival had unfortunately significantly diminished".

The Government "will do everything to recover the body of the mariner", he added.

Mr Kane said something went "terribly wrong" for the crash to happen, and there is "no evidence" of foul play.

There were fears Solong was carrying sodium cyanide, but shipping company Ernst Russ, which manages the vessel, said that was not the case.

Four empty containers on board that "previously contained the hazardous chemical" will "continue to be monitored", it added.

Aerial images from the scene show three tugboats are alongside Solong, and at least one attached to it.

Smoke is continuing to billow from the ship.

Getty Images

The Solong was clearly visible from the Lincolnshire coast on Tuesday afternoon.

A small group of people gathered in the village of Saltfleet to see the stricken vessel drifting near the horizon about five miles out from the shore.

Those with binoculars could see three small boats operating around it, with smoke still coming from parts of the ship.

Locals said the vessel first became visible on Tuesday morning and has gradually been drifting south, towards the seaside town of Mablethorpe.

The area is famous for its seal colonies and people living along the coastline said they were getting increasingly concerned about the consequences of the fuel leak into the sea.

One woman in Saltfleet said: "Look at how beautiful it is here. This is what we're worried about. It's so fragile and it could do catastrophic damage."

Mr Kane said the vessels became attached to each other during the collision but Solong "broke free of the Stena Immaculate late last night and began drifting southwards".

He added that the fire on Stena Immaculate "appears to be extinguished".

An exclusion zone with a 1km radius is in place around both vessels.

Crowley, the maritime company managing Stena Immaculate, said the vessel was struck by Solong while anchored off the coast of Hull, causing "multiple explosions" on board and an unknown quantity of Jet A-1 fuel to be released.

The firm said Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks, at least one of which "was ruptured" when it was struck.

The tanker was operating as part of the US government's tanker security programme, a group of commercial vessels that can be contracted to carry fuel for the military when needed.

It had been anchored while waiting for a berth to become available at the Port of Killingholme, on the River Humber, Crowley said.

CBS News in the US reported that an American man who said he was among the crew on Stena Immaculate described how Solong "came from out of the blue" and it appeared no-one was on its bridge when the crash happened.

Ship tracking website VesselFinder shows the tanker had departed from a port in the Peloponnese region of Greece and was heading towards Hull, while Solong was sailing to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Mr Kane said the crews of both vessels abandoned ship after "initial firefighting attempts were overwhelmed".

HM Coastguard said in a statement its counter pollution and salvage team is "developing a plan ready for implementation as soon as the situation allows".

It added that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has confirmed that air quality at ground level is "currently within normal levels for the weather conditions", and the UK Health Security Agency has advised that any public health risk on shore is "currently deemed to be very low".

A Department for Transport spokesperson said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander will meet Maritime and Coastguard Agency chief executive Virginia McVea later on Tuesday to discuss the latest situation and response.

Helen Jay, the National Trust's senior national consultant for coast, said teams were keeping a lookout along the north-east and east of England coastline for visible signs of pollution affecting seabirds, sea life and the coast itself.

She said: "Any pollution incident can have a devastating impact on our wildlife and this is a vital time for many migratory birds as they return to our shores for the breeding season such as puffins, terns and gannets as well as marine life including seals, dolphins, fish and harbour porpoise."

Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said: "With many designated areas for environmental protection around the coastline, a spill from the container ship or the tanker could be devastating for this much-loved wildlife.

"While tanker accidents are rare around the British coast the potential harm can be enormous. The sooner we make the transition to clean energy the better, for the health of us all and the planet."

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