Portugal Colonial - Ships blaze after North Sea crash, govt rules out foul play

Questions remained, however, about how the accident happened and there were fears that any spill could harm the marine environment and coastline, home to seals, porpoises and several species of protected waders and seabirds.

A member of the Solong cargo vessel crew was missing, "likely deceased", a UK government minister told parliament.

The UK Coastguard halted search operations late on Monday after rescuing all other crew members -- 36 in total -- from both ships.

Images shown by the BBC on Tuesday showed the Stena Immaculate fuel tanker with a large hole in its hull and huge plumes of thick, black smoke billowing into the air, while smaller boats doused the ship with water.

"The Solong is still alight and the fire on board the Stena Immaculate has greatly diminished," the UK Coastguard said.

It said they were closely monitoring the Solong, which had broken free of the tanker overnight and was drifting southwards.

An investigation has begun into the accident, which occurred at around 09:48 am (0948 GMT) on Monday when the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship ploughed into the US-flagged tanker, anchored about 13 miles (18 kilometres) off the northeastern port of Hull.

The Stena Immaculate was on a short-term US military charter with Military Sealift Command, according to a spokesperson for the command, which operates civilian-crewed ships for the US Defense Department.

Crowley, the US-based operator of the Stena Immaculate, said the crash had "ruptured" the tank "containing A1-jet fuel" and triggered a fire, with fuel "reported released".

The UK government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has already launched a probe into Monday's accident to determine the next steps.

"There doesn't appear to be any suggestions of foul play at this time," Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday.

- No sodium cyanide -

The Stena Immaculate was carrying around 220,000 barrels of jet fuel, according to maritime information service Lloyd's List Intelligence.

The German owners of the Solong said on Tuesday that the container ship was not carrying sodium cyanide, as had been reported the previous day.

"We are able to confirm that there are no containers on board with sodium cyanide (inside)," German shipping company Ernst Russ said.

"There are four empty containers that have previously contained the hazardous chemical and these containers will continue to be monitored," it added.

A spokesman for the Marine Accident Investigation Branch said a team sent to Grimsby, across the Humber estuary from Hull, was "gathering evidence and undertaking a preliminary assessment".

Dutch maritime servicing company Boskalis told the Netherlands' ANP news agency it had been tasked with salvaging the Stena Immaculate and was "fully mobilising".

- Environmental concerns -

Four ships with firefighting capacity were on their way to the site, a Boskalis spokesperson said, adding that the tanker would need to be "cooled down" before the fire could be extinguished.

UK Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said the investigation was being led by US and Portuguese authorities, since the vessels were sailing under their flags.

"We're obviously very alive to the potential impact on the environment," he told Times Radio, but added the Coastguard was well equipped to deal with any oil spills.

"The good news is... it's not like a crude oil spill," Ivor Vince, founder of environmental risk advisory group ASK Consultants, told AFP.

"Most of it will evaporate quite quickly and what doesn't evaporate will be degraded by microorganisms quite quickly," he said.

But Paul Johnston, a senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at Exeter University, said: "We are extremely concerned about the multiple toxic hazards."

There are several nature reserves along the Humber estuary.

"We don't want to see wildlife dying. It's a chain of events. it affects the wildlife which could then affect other (species)", she added.

A.Santos--PC