Containership Corvus J and car carrier Baltic Ace collide claiming four lives

FOUR crew members have died and seven are still missing in the icy waters of the North sea, after a cargo ship and a car carrier Baltic Ace collided and sank off the Dutch coast on December 5.

The Baltic Ace was under way from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Kotka in Finland when it collided with the German owned, Cyprus-flagged containership Corvus J en route from Grangemouth in Scotland to Antwerp in Belgium, according to shipping tracker website MarineTraffic.com.

The Dutch coastguard has resumed the search in daylight for the remaining seven but an unnamed official said "the chance of finding any survivors is very slim," cited a report from Reuters newswire.

Rotterdam port spokesman Sjaak Poppe said "the collision would not affect shipping in and out of the port" even though the shipping lane where the accident happened is one of the busiest in the North Sea and an important passing point for ships sailing into the Rotterdam port, Europe's largest and the fifth-largest in the world, Dutch media reported.