The Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced on Monday that Britain's Coastguard was responding to reports about a collision involving a cargo vessel and a tanker off England's Northeastern Coast.

The agency reported that a helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft and lifeboats, as well as nearby vessels with firefighting capabilities, were dispatched to the scene.

Alarm was raised for this ongoing incident at 0948 GMT.

BBC reported that an oil tanker involved in a collision had caught fire. Could not verify the report immediately.

It said that the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the shipping agency of the United Nations, was aware of the problem and is investigating it further.

Marine Traffic, a maritime analytics website, showed that a number vessels were in the North Sea area where the accident occurred. These included container ships and oil tanks. (Reporting and editing by William James; Sachin Ravikumar, Jonathan Saul)

(source: Reuters)