Video shows shipping containers fall from deck into sea as ships collide in Karachi

Dozens of crates are left littering the water

Huge shipping containers tumbled into the sea when two large ships collided at a Karachi port.

Captured on video, a loud wailing sound can be heard as one vessel appears to grind up against the other, which is stationary by the shore.

Crates begin falling off the end of one ship, believed be a Hapag-Lloyd vessel called Tolten, crashing into the sea.

More than a dozen multi-coloured crates tumble down, landing on top of each other and sending large spurts of water into the air.

Eventually, the ship furthest from the shore slowly begins to pull away, leaving behind a pile of half-submerged containers littering the water.

The clip, filmed by a man in a yellow hard hat who at one point turns the camera on himself, has been shared thousands of times on social media.

The South Asia Port Terminal suspended operations while the crates were cleared out of the water, Pakistani TV station Geo News reported.

The Independent contacted Hapag-Lloyd for comment but none had arrived at the time of publication, but in a statement to Port Technology the firm said: “Our ship the ‘Tolten’ rammed another ship while berthing in Karachi. We deeply regret that this incident occurred."

“We have ascertained on-site that no one was injured as a result of the incident, and that there has been absolutely no environmental pollution. There is yet to be a definitive explanation for this incident.

“We will conduct an in-depth investigation of the incident, and are working as hard as we can to get the vessel back on its way as quickly as possible.”