BRUSSELS — Ignoring radio warnings, guardships and safety buoys, a tanker loaded with diesel oil slammed into a wreck in one of the world's busiest sea lanes, damaging its hull and threatening Europe's coastline with yet another environmental disaster.

The 243-metre Vicky already lost some fuel after the crash in the English Channel and was listing slightly in Belgian territorial waters, some 30 kilometres from the North Sea port of Ostend. Even though initial damage to the Turkish ship was limited, an impending storm could make matters worse, said provincial governor Paul Breyne.

"If the cracks between the different compartments of the ship, which are there now, would get bigger, then the danger for much worse pollution would not be unrealistic," he said in a telephone interview after a crisis meeting in Ostend.

Divers and security officials sought to investigate the damage in details, but worsening conditions at sea could keep them away from the stricken vessel.

"A storm has been announced and it is not easy to get close to the ship," he said. Maritime forecasts called for winds up to 100 km/h Thursday night and continued strong winds on Friday.

Even though the ship was carrying some 70,000 tonnes of primarily diesel and heavy fuel to New York, Breyne said only a third of the cargo was at risk because of the compartmentalization of the ship. A two-layered reinforced hull offered it further protection.

"Let us not start to panic," Breyne said.

Europe was already dealing with one of its worst environmental disasters at sea before the Vicky compounded the problems.

The aging, single-hulled Prestige tanker split in two and sank off the Spanish coast on Nov. 19. The spill has already blackened many beaches in Spain and is now threatening beaches in southwestern France too.

Officials in France, Britain and Belgium have been searching for an answer to how the Vicky could have ignored so many warnings to hit the wreck of the Tricolor, which went down Dec. 15.

Another cargo vessel, the German-owned Nicola, collided with the sunken Tricolor on Dec. 17 but was pulled clear.

Philippe Baquet, director of the maritime surveillance and rescue centre in France's Griz-Nez said the wreck was "marked by five shining buoys ... with a signal that is perfectly understood by all the world's sailors."

"It's hard to explain why the Vicky didn't respect these signals," he told LCI television.

A coast guard spokeswoman in Dover, England, said that despite hourly warnings to ships in the channel around the submerged Tricolor, the ultimate responsibility always lies with the master of any vessel.

She said hourly broadcasts by both British and French coast guards warn of the wreck, which is in a very busy lane of the channel where 400 to 500 ships move each day.

"About 90 per cent of accidents like this are the result of a human factor," said Andrew Linington, a spokesman for the British maritime union.

But Capt. Dirk Verbergt, a Belgian maritime expert, said navigation in the English Channel is far from easy, even with plenty of warnings.

He pointed to poor visibility due to rain, a slew of ships in the Channel transmitting their own signals, shoals and narrow traffic lanes, all of which left little room for manoeuvre. "It is an incredibly difficult zone," he said.

Local authorities in Ostend initiated a special disaster plan to deal with a possible spill of the cargo itself. Because the ship sat deeper in the water since the accident it would not be able to enter a Belgian port and it was unclear where it would be towed to.

Once ships were able to approach the vessel, fuel would be pumped into other ships until the Vicky was light enough to enter a Belgian port or Rotterdam in the neighbouring Netherlands.