An oil tanker and cargo ship are both reported to be on fire after colliding in the North Sea off the coast of Lincolnshire, the RNLI said.
The lifeboat service added that it had sent four crews to the incident this morning.
There have been reports a number of people abandoned the vessels following the collision, the RNLI added.
The oil tanker is named Stena Immaculate and is sailing under a US flag, while the cargo ship is named Solong and is Portuguese-flagged, according to Marinetraffic.com.
The website also described the US-flagged vessel as being an "oil/chemical tanker".
HM Coastguard said earlier it is currently co-ordinating the emergency response.
The alarm was raised just before 9.50am.
MNA/
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