Oil tanker and cargo vessel collide in the North Sea off English coast

LONDON — An oil tanker and a cargo vessel collided off the British coast in the North Sea on Monday, the U.K. coast guard said.

His Majesty’s Coastguard, which acts as the United Kingdom's national maritime emergency service, said it was coordinating a response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire in England.

It said an alarm was raised alerting them to the incident at 9:48 a.m. local time (5:48 a.m. ET).

A coastguard rescue helicopter was last being dispatched to respond to the collision, along with lifeboats from multiple areas, including Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe and Cleethorpes, the British government's Marine and Coastguard Agency said in a media statement.

It added that an HM Coastguard aircraft and nearby vessels with "fire-fighting capability" were also being deployed.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries in connection with the incident as of early Monday morning.