Russian frigate and container ship collide in Danish waters

COPENHAGEN – A Russian frigate has collided with a Marshall Islands-flagged container ship off Copenhagen, Denmark’s navy said. Weather reports show that there was thick fog in the area at the time of the collision on Wednesday morning.

The navy also said that no one appeared to have been injured and that there have been no reports of any leaks during the collision near the Oresund link, a tunnel and bridge that connects Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city.

It said the civilian vessel, Ice Rose, had anchored in Danish waters and that it had been “withheld …. until there is assurance of the ship’s seaworthiness.”

The whereabouts of the unidentified Russian frigate was not known.

The collision occurred in the southern part of the narrow Oresund straight between the Danish capital and southern Sweden, the Danish navy said.

It said it was on site with a patrol vessel together with Swedish ships.

The cause of the collision was not known but Danish maritime industry website Soefart said the Russian frigate moved on with its automatic identification system, known as AIS, switched off.

The nearly 145 metre-long (476 feet) frigate ship came from St. Petersburg in Russia and was en route to Goteborg, Sweden, according to the ship-tracking website marinetraffic.com.