Port chief says 32 casualties brought ashore after ships collide, catch fire in North Sea             

An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England on Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, emergency services said.

At least 32 casualties were brought ashore, but their condition was not immediately clear.

Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said 13 casualties were brought in on a Windcat 33 vessel, followed by another 19 on a harbour pilot boat.

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.

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.

The tanker, believed to be the US-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 am (0948 GMT). The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles (250 km) north of London.