Catastrophic Collision: cargo ship and tanker ablaze in North Sea

Fires were still raging on Tuesday after a cargo ship laden with toxic materials slammed into a tanker carrying flammable jet fuel in the North Sea, as questions mounted about how the accident happened.

The fires were "still going on", nearly 24 hours after the Solong cargo ship ran into the Stena Immaculate tanker, anchored about 10 miles (16 kilometres) off the northeast port of Hull.

One crew member was also still missing, Grimsby port chief executive Martyn Boyers told AFP.

The government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has launched a probe into Monday's accident to determine the next steps and need for a counter-pollution response.

The UK Coastguard halted search operations late on Monday after rescuing 36 crew members from both ships. It was not immediately clear if the search had resumed early on Tuesday.

"One crew member of the Solong remains unaccounted for. After an extensive search for the missing crew member sadly they have not been found and the search has ended," said Matthew Atkinson, Divisional Commander for the HM Coastguard.

Images on Monday showed a huge plume of thick, black smoke and flames rising from the scene off the coast of East Yorkshire, sparking concerns of "multiple toxic hazards".

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

Crowley, the US-based operators of the tanker, said the impact of the crash "ruptured" the ship's tank "containing A1-jet fuel" and triggered a fire, with fuel "reported released".

The Stena Immaculate was carrying around 220,000 barrels of jet fuel.

The Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, according to the Lloyd's List information service, but it is not known if any of the flammable compound had leaked.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the situation "extremely concerning".

All crew members aboard the Stena Immaculate were confirmed to be alive, a spokeswoman for the tanker's Swedish owner, Stena Bulk, told AFP.

'Toxic hazards'
A spokesman for the government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch said: "Our team of inspectors and support staff are gathering evidence and undertaking a preliminary assessment of the accident to determine our next steps."

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

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.

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

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

He warned though, that "it will kill fish and other creatures".

There were growing concerns about the consequences of any spillage into the North Sea for the local environment and protected wildlife.

Paul Johnston, a senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at Exeter University, said: "We are extremely concerned about the multiple toxic hazards these chemicals could pose to marine life."

The jet fuel entered the water close to a breeding ground for harbour porpoises.

Sodium cyanide is "a highly toxic chemical that could cause serious harm", he explained.

Humber traffic suspended
All vessel movements were "suspended" in the Humber estuary that flows into the North Sea, according to Associated British Ports (ABP), which operates in the Ports of Hull and Immingham in the region.

The German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said it was also dispatching a vessel capable of fire fighting and oil recovery.

Grimsby native Paul Lancaster, a former seaman, told AFP: "I don't understand how two ships that big could collide".

"There must have been a massive engineering problem," he said.