An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the coast of eastern England Monday, setting both vessels on fire and triggering a major rescue operation, emergency services said.

Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said several lifeboats and a coast guard rescue helicopter were dispatched to the scene in the North Sea, along with a coast guard plane and nearby vessels with firefighting capability.

The RNLI life boat agency said “there were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships.” It said three lifeboats were working on search and rescue at the scene alongside the coast guard.

The tanker, believed to be the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, was at anchor at the time, according to ship-tracking site Vessel Finder. The cargo vessel, container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Coast guards said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. (0948 GMT). The site of the collision is off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of London.