Norway has evacuated the entire crew of one of its warships after it collided in a fjord with an oil tanker.

Seven people were lightly injured in the collision in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen in the early hours of Thursday, rescuers say. The frigate has been listing dangerously.

The KNM Helge Ingstad had been returning from Nato military exercises.

The tanker, the Sola TS, was only slightly damaged and it appears that it did not spill oil.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the collision, which reportedly occurred shortly after 04:00 (03:00 GMT), and led to 137 people being taken off the warship.

The Maltese-flagged vessel had left Equinor’s Sture oil shipment terminal with a cargo of North Sea crude, Reuters news agency reports.

Sture, a major export oil terminal, was shut down temporarily as a precautionary measure.

An unnamed official told AFP news agency that a “small oil slick” had been detected from the frigate.

“It took on a lot of water and there is a real danger that it sinks where it is,” the official said.

#TridentJuncture/ The situation is going bad to worse for Norwegian frigate #HelgeIngstad.

Picture at 11h35 from NRK live.

Propulsion system is now under waters… pic.twitter.com/CIj1fNDDle

End of Twitter post by @JeromePio

The tanker, which has a crew of 23, was returning to port for inspection.

Source: Read Full Article