Tanker collision sparks slick fear

Nearly 2,000 tonnes of oil has leaked from a tanker after it collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea, say Danish officials.

The Baltic Carrier, carrying 30,000 tonnes of oil, was en route from Estonia to Gothenburg in Sweden when the accident happened on Wednesday night.

The collision ripped a 20-metre wide hole in one of the tanks of the double-hulled vessel, although German officials on Thursday said oil was no longer leaking from the tanker.

Six oil containment ships from Denmark, Germany and Sweden are on their way to try to prevent the oil hitting the southern Danish island of Moen, on which the capital, Copenhagen, is located.

Still seaworthy

But gale-force winds were expected to make the anti-pollution operation difficult.

The accident happened 13 nautical miles north of Darss, in the sea lane between the north German coast and the Danish island of Falster.

German officials said the Marshall Islands-registered tanker was at anchor and in no danger of sinking.

The freighter, the Cypriot-flagged Tern, was also still seaworthy. It was carrying a cargo of sugar from Cuba to Latvia.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.