A Norwegian warship was repeatedly warned of its collision course with a Maltese oil tanker before then hitting it in a fjord, the BBC has been told.

The KNM Helge Ingstad has been listing dangerously since Thursday’s collision in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen.

All 137 of its crew were evacuated and eight people were injured.

The frigate was returning from Nato military exercises. The tanker, the Sola TS, was slightly damaged but it appears that it did not spill oil.

The early morning incident led to the temporary shutdown of a major oil terminal and a gas plant.
He would not confirm further details as reported by a Norwegian defence and security website, which broke the news that the two vessels could see each other and followed communication protocols on an open channel.

“The tanker, which was heading northbound, contacted the frigate, heading southbound, to ask if they had a plan to safely pass them as they seemed to be on a collision course,” Kjetil Stormark, the editor of AldriMer.no told the BBC.

Citing what he called key sources, he said: “The response was: ‘We have everything under control.’”