The biggest ecological disaster off the coast of Britain – oil tanker bursts into flames off the Yorkshire coast after being struck by container ship

Humber Coastguard raised the alarm after the ship carrying cyanide smashed into a US military oil tanker, causing a 'massive fireball' off the East Yorkshire coast, ‘The Daily Mail’ writes.

A total of 36 mariners were rescued yesterday after abandoning ships as explosions rocked their doomed vessels amid fears of an environmental disaster.

Jet fuel gushed into the North Sea from the ruptured hold of the US-flagged oil tanker MV Stena Immaculate, which was transporting American military supplies. It had been at anchor when Portuguese-registered cargo ship MV Solong crashed into it.

Fires continued to burn into this morning, after the Coastguard said an 'extensive search' for a missing crew member from the cargo ship had been called off – with aerial video this morning showing the Immaculate's blackened deck with a huge hole on its port side where she was ripped into.

The American, who did not give their name, described the crew rushing to put on protective gear to help battle the inferno before realising it was a hopeless cause.

The experienced seaman claims they were near the impact site and described how a 'massive ship came from out of the blue' before slicing into the at-anchor vessel.

The 7,852-tonne Solong did not stop immediate following the crash and drove into the Immaculate for 10 minutes, the sailor added.

Analytics firm Vortexa said 130,000 barrels of jet fuel were leaking into the water last night.

The cargo vessel was carrying 15 shipping containers packed with sodium cyanide – a highly toxic and water-soluble compound – according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd's List Intelligence.

The Solong had been sailing from the Scottish port of Grangemouth to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

As it steamed at 16 knots – about 18mph – down England's east coast, its crew appeared not to see the enormous tanker parked ahead, ramming into it side-on.

As maritime accident investigators began work yesterday, one expert suggested 'nobody on the cargo ship was paying attention' as it neared the Stena Immaculate – which can carry 46.5million litres of oil – about 13 miles off the coast, east of Hull and the Humber estuary, where it had anchored overnight.

In a video analysing the tracking data from the ships, he said: 'It appears that Solong just straight-out rammed into the side of Stena Immaculate.'

Dramatic footage showed the stricken vessels entangled as they floated around consumed by an inferno, as a massive rescue operation was launched shortly after the crash.

Flames leapt from oil burning on the surface of the sea as RNLI lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter plucked sailors to safety.

The Stena Immaculate, which had travelled from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi, had been chartered by the US Navy's Military Sealift Command as part of its Tanker Security Program which 'supports US military missions across the globe'.

Dr Abdul Khalique, head of the Maritime Centre at Liverpool John Moores University who has been using simulators to reconstruct the incident, said: 'It can be assumed that the watchkeepers on MV Solong were not performing their duty to 'maintain a proper lookout by all available means' as required by International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.'

There were immediate fears of an environmental catastrophe as aviation fuel spilled into the sea. Martin Slater, of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said it could potentially be 'devastating' to the Humber estuary, with birds and seals at risk.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the disaster was close to the biggest gannet colony in England and warned a leak could be 'lethal' to seabirds.