Harmful plastic pellets, known as nurdles, are washing up on beaches in Norfolk and around The Wash following a collision between a tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea. The nurdles are thought to have been released when the container ship Solong collided with the fuel tanker Stena Immaculate off the coast of East Yorkshire a week ago.

Small plastic pellets washed up on the east coast of the UK, a week after two ships collided in the country’s waters.

Tiny plastic pellets found washed up on England's east coast are likely to have come from a collision involving a tanker and a cargo ship a week ago, the coastguard has said. The Stena Immaculate and cargo ship Solong collided in the North Sea,