The Environment Agency is investigating after shocking images showed a "10-metre wide" area of pollution in the North Sea along a vast area of the County Durham and Teesside coast.
Described as a "slick", by one witness who said he had never seen anything like it before, the pollution is as it stands unidentified, but the Environment Agency said staff were in the County Durham area investigating this on Saturday afternoon.
The witness took pictures from Easington beach and on the coast near Shippersea Bay. They said: "I was going along the coast as I do quite often when I noticed a sheen in the water. I could see it went right the way from the East Durham coast down to Teesside. I had been on Easington beach and you could see it stretched down to Crimdon and Hartlepool."
