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A Norwegian Navy frigate has been rammed by an oil tanker while it was docked in a harbour on the country’s west coast, the military says.
The crew of 127 was evacuated amid fears the ship will sink.
Eight people on the KNM Helge Instad were slightly injured when the accident occurred at 4am (local time) in Sture, north of Bergen.
The military said the ship, which had recently taken part in the vast NATO drill Trident Juncture, is taking on water.
Eirik Walle, with the rescue centre, told Norwegian news agency NTB the collision caused an opening in the frigate’s hull and “it is taking in more water than they can pump out. There is no control over the leak and the stern is heavily in the sea.”
The Maltese-flagged tanker, Sola TS, was not damaged and its 23-man crew remained on board.
Details of the accident were still unclear. Norway’s Accident Investigation Board said a towboat was also involved in the accident, but didn’t say how.
The shipping site Sysla said the tanker had been loaded with crude oil and was being towed out of the harbour when it somehow rammed the frigate. The tanker was on its way to Britain, Sysla said.
The Norwegian Navy has planned a news conference for later on Thursday.
Johan Marius Ly of the Norwegian Coast Guard said the extent of leakage was unknown.
Norway’s largest oil and gas company Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, said it shut down non-emergency activities at the Sture terminal where the collision occurred “as a precautionary measure.”
Several offshore rigs that were pumping their production into the Sture terminal, a major tanker port for crude oil, temporarily suspended the flow, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported.
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