Rescuers doing ‘everything they can’ as desperate search begins for missing Verity crew in North Sea cargo ship crash – live

One boat, which is still waterborne, was carrying 22 passengers.

Rescuers doing ‘everything they can’ as desperate search begins for missing Verity crew in North Sea cargo ship crash – live
A collage of the North Sea and the Polesie and Verity boats.
The shipwreck occurred near the North Sea island of Helgoland, northern Germany (Picture: Getty)

Several people are feared dead after two freighters crashed in the North Sea, German maritime emergency officials said today.

The shipwreck occurred after the Bahaman Polesie and the British Verity vessels smashed into one another at around 5am local time 12 nautical miles southwest of Heligoland.

The Verity departed Bremen at about 7pm yesterday for Immingham, a key trading port in Lincolnshire.

After 3am, all radio connection with the Verity was lost, with a search for the 91-metre-long ship now underway, the central command said.

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