An oil tanker and a Norwegian navy frigate have collided off Norway’s west coast, injuring eight people and triggering the temporary shutdown of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway’s top gas processing plant and several offshore fields.

The frigate, which recently took part in a major NATO military exercise, was aground and tilting on one side, live television pictures showed. The Norwegian military was attempting to save the ship.

“We are working on stabilising the vessel,” Norwegian Navy Counter-Admiral Nils Andreas Stensoenes told a news conference on Friday morning (Australian time), adding that the eight injured were all navy crew. About 137 crew were on board at the time of the accident.

“We are very glad that no lives got lost and that the injuries are not more serious than they are,” he added.

Police and the national Accident Investigation Board were investigating the accident..

The tanker had left Equinor’s Sture oil shipment terminal with a cargo of crude, and the facility was shut for several hours as a result.

The Kollsnes gas plant, with a processing capacity of 144.5 million cubic metres per day, was also shut for several hours.

There was no sign of a leak from the oil tanker, although it would return to port for inspection, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway told Reuters.

-Reuters