1 dead, 4 missing after North Sea cargo ship collision

Oct. 24 (UPI) -- One man was killed and four people are missing after a British cargo vessel went down in the North Sea on Tuesday in a collision with a much larger freight ship in the German Bight.

Two people were hospitalized after being plucked from the water with a full search and rescue operation remaining underway Tuesday as of 2:30 p.m. local time, said the Central Command for Maritime Emergencies in the northern German port of Cuxhaven.

The Verity and bulk carrier Polesie collided approximately 12 nautical miles southwest of the island of Heligoland in darkness earlier Tuesday, according to the command center which said the airspace over the accident zone had been shut within a radius of 10 nautical miles.

The 300-foot Verity was en route from Bremen to the port of Immingham on the Humber estuary on England's east coast with a crew of seven when it sank. The 620-foot-long Bahamas-flagged Polesie with 22 crew on board was sailing from Hamburg to the Spanish port of A Coruna.

The CCME said the Polesie remained afloat after the collision and none of its crew were hurt.

Data from ship tracking service MarineTraffic shows that the vessels had two close encounters about 45 minutes apart at around 5 a.m. local time and then again at 5:45 a.m.

Transport Minister Volker Wissing said rescuers were doing "everything they could" to save the missing crew.

"My thoughts are with the crew members and their families. I would like to thank the rescue teams who have been on duty since early this morning," he wrote in a post on X.

A P&O cruise liner, The Iona, sailing from Hamburg to Rotterdam diverted to assist in the rescue.

A spokesperson for P&O Cruises said: "P&O Cruises' Iona is currently involved in a search and rescue operation off the coast of Germany.

"The incident is ongoing and Iona's cooperation complies with international maritime law as well as being consistent with the company's moral and legal obligations."