Three dead, 8 missing in North Sea cargo ship collision
Rescuers pulled at least three bodies from the icywaters of the North Sea and were frantically searching for eight missing crew from a cargo ship that sank following a collision in a busy shipping lane off the Dutch coast.
The Dutch coastguard and navy plucked 13 survivors from the water after the Baltic Ace, a 23,000 tonne car carrier, collided with container ship the Corvus J at around 7:15 pm (1815 GMT) about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Rotterdam, yesterday.
The Baltic Ace sank shortly afterwards, the coastguard said.
"I can confirm we have found three victims. Eight others are still missing," Marcel Oldenburger said.
He said that 13 crew members who were on board the Bahamas-registered Baltic Ace had been rescued.
Four survivors were flown to a hospital in Rotterdam, seven taken by rescue helicopter to a hospital in Belgium and two were being treated on board a ship that found them, Oldenburger said.
"They are all in shock" and are believed to suffer from hypothermia, he said.
Oldenburger said the search for survivors was frantic: "We don't know where they are at the moment, whether they are in life boats, or in the sea."
At least three helicopters -- one of which was fitted out with infrared imaging equipment to search in the darkness – and a plane have joined the search, Oldenburger said.
The Baltic Ace was under way from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Kotka in Finland and the Corvus J from Grangemouth in Scotland to Antwerp in Belgium, according to shipping tracker website
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