U.S. tanker is leaking fuel in the North Sea after a collision with a container ship

LONDON — Dramatic TV footage shows a U.S.-flagged oil tanker spewing black smoke and flames after a collision with a container ship loaded with cargo off Britain’s North Sea coast.

U.K. Coastguard and firefighting helicopters were hovering over the burning ships, as lifeboats ferried survivors away. The chief executive of a nearby port told local media there was a “massive fireball” following the collision. Authorities said 37 people have been rescued. One required hospitalization, and all crew from both boats are now ashore.

The U.S.-flagged vessel is one of 10 tankers that are part of a U.S. government program supplying fuel to the U.S. military during times of armed conflict or national emergency, the BBC reported.

The U.S. tanker’s operator, Florida-based Crowley Maritime, said in a statement on social media that its vessel, the MV Stena Immaculate, was struck while anchored off the North Sea coast near Hull in East Yorkshire. It says the vessel was carrying jet fuel, which is now leaking into the sea.

A member of the United Kingdom’s parliament representing the area, Graham Stuart, expressed concern in a statement about the collision’s “potential ecological impact.”

“The magnitude of any [environmental] impact will depend on … the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much of that … has entered the water,” Stefano Gelmini, a spokesperson for Greenpeace U.K., told NPR in an emailed statement. “Sea and weather conditions will also be important in determining how any spill behaves.”

“The speed of the response will also be crucial in limiting any impact,” he added.

It is “too early” to assess the extent of environmental damage so far, Gelmini said, but “both the high speed of the collision and the footage of the aftermath are cause for great concern.”

The collision happened in a busy North Sea waterway with shipping traffic between England, the Netherlands and Germany.