The UK coastguard ended the search for a missing crew member after a cargo ship ran into a US-military charted tanker carrying jet fuel in the North Sea on Monday.

HM Coastguard rescued 36 crew members from the Stena Immaculate tanker and Solong container vessel, with one taken to hospital.

"One crew member of the Solong remains unaccounted for. After an extensive search for the missing crew member sadly they have not been found and the search has ended," said Matthew Atkinson, Divisional Commander for HM Coastguard.

Images showed a huge plume of thick, black smoke and flames rising from the scene about 16 kilometres off the east England coast, sparking concerns of "multiple toxic hazards".

The Stena Immaculate tanker was "anchored off the North Sea coast near Hull...
[and] was struck by the container ship Solong", the Stena's US-based operators Crowley said in a statement.

The Stena was on a short-term US military charter with Military Sealift Command, according to Jillian Morris, the spokesperson for the command that operates civilian-crewed ships providing ocean transport for the US Defense Department.

Crowley said the impact of the collision "ruptured" the tanker "containing A1-jet fuel" and triggered a fire, with fuel "reported released".

It was carrying around 220,000 barrels of jet fuel while the Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, according to the Lloyd's List information service, but it is not known if any of the flammable compound had leaked.

The two vessels were still on fire 12 hours after the collision, said the coastguard.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the situation "extremely concerning".

All crew members aboard the Stena Immaculate were confirmed to be alive, a spokeswoman for the tanker's Swedish owner, Stena Bulk, told AFP.

The alarm about the crash near the port city of Hull in East Yorkshire was raised at 0948 GMT.

A coastguard helicopter, a plane, lifeboats from four towns and other nearby vessels were part of the large rescue operation, UK Coastguard said. (AFP)