The Swedish Coast Guard had only just completed its operation on a freighter with a burning timber cargo. Now the authority is called back to sea: It’s a matter of life and death.
Stockholm – According to the authorities, two ships collided in the Baltic Sea. One of the two freighters capsized and was lying in the water off the southern Swedish coast near Bornholm with the keel up, as photos from the scene of the accident showed.
How exactly the accident happened initially remained unclear. The visibility on site was poor at the time. A major mission was going on to rescue two missing crew members from the smaller of the two ships. At the same time, the emergency services were working to bring the capsized ship closer to land. There divers should look for the missing persons inside the ship.
Collision confirmed
“We can confirm that two ships collided this morning in the Baltic Sea,” said the spokesman for the Swedish shipping authority Sjöfartsverket, Jonas Franzen, on a dpa request. These were the Danish “Karin Høj” and the British ship “Scot Carrier”. The Danish freighter is therefore the one that overturned. According to Franzen, the search continued for two people. The top priority is to save human lives, he told the Swedish broadcaster SVT that morning.
A spokesman for the Danish military also told Danish radio that one could see on radar images that one or the other type of collision had occurred between the two ships. The exact circumstances are not yet known.
Between Ystad and Bornholm
The accident occurred early Monday morning between the southern Swedish city of Ystad and the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The two missing crew members are said to be Danes. The hope is that they can still be found alive inside the ship. The Swedish Coast Guard took part in the search for them. At the same time, she initiated an environmental rescue operation to prevent oil or other harmful substances from entering the sea. There is currently no oil leak, the coast guard announced on Monday morning.
The “Karin Høj” is a good 55 meters long. On-site photos of her ship’s keel, which was above the surface of the water and painted red, could be seen. The approximately 90 meters long “Scot Carrier” was not far away. Both freighters had been heading west in hazy conditions.
The Swedish coast guard had only completed a day-long mission off the west coast of their country at the weekend: after almost a week at sea, a ship from a Hamburg shipping company with a fire in the cargo was brought to the port of the Swedish city of Gothenburg. There the authorities handed over the responsibility for the further extinguishing work to the Gothenburg rescue service. dpa
