The captain of a cargo ship has been arrested after it collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday.

Humberside Police said the 59-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following searches for a missing crew member of the Solong. Crowley, the Florida-based joint owners of the stricken oil tanker, said the fire on board its vessel had "greatly diminished with no visible flames".
The company said it was continuing to help the UK authorities during initial salvage activities but its priorities were the wellbeing of its 23-strong crew and efforts to limit the environmental impact of the crash. It added that it was unclear how much of the jet fuel it was carrying had been released into the sea but an "initial review shows impacts have been limited due to exposure to the fire and evaporation of the fuel".

German firm Ernst Russ, which owns the Solong, confirmed that the man arrested is the master of the ship. It said he, along with the rest of the crew, were assisting the investigation.

A crew member from the cargo ship was still missing and presumed dead after a search and rescue operation ended on Monday evening, according to Transport Minister Mike Kane.

Source: vesselfinder.com