British cargo ship Verity presumed sunk after North Sea collision

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A British cargo ship is presumed to have sunk in the North Sea after a collision early on Tuesday, according to German authorities.

Nine ships and search aircraft, including a helicopter from the German Navy and a P&O cruise liner, are looking for survivors.

Authorities said one person had been rescued from the water and was receiving medical care while “several” others were missing. No details were given on how many people were aboard the stricken ship.

The 91-metre vessel Verity, a bulk carrier, collided with the larger freighter Polesie at 5am in the German Bight, the shallow south-eastern part of the North Sea, 12 nautical miles south-west of the German island of Heligoland, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said.

The Verity, a British-flagged ship built in 2001, was en route from Bremen in Germany to Immingham, on the Humber estuary in north-east England.

“[We] currently assume that the Verity sank as a result of the collision,” maritime command, based in the north German port town of Cuxhaven, not far from the scene of the accident, said.

Two emergency sea rescue cruisers, the Hermann Marwede and the Bernhard Gruben are co-ordinating the search in the area.

Other emergency response ships and commercial vessels are on their way to join the rescue operation. Among them is the P&O cruise liner Iona, a 344-metre vessel with room for 7,000 crew and passengers, which departed from Southhampton at the weekend for a tour of the North Sea coast.

Doctors and medical staff on board the liner have been told to prepare to receive casualties.

Conditions in the area on Tuesday morning were rough but navigable, with waves of up to 3 metres and winds of up to 50km an hour.

The Polesie, which at 190 metres is more than twice the size of the Verity, is still buoyant. The vessel has a crew of 22 people. It was on its way from Hamburg to Coruna in Spain.