HELICOPTERS were sent to assist a North Sea drilling platform which lost anchors during Storm Babet.
Stena Drilling said four of the eight anchors detached themselves from Stena Spey due to the “severe weather”.
All 89 personnel on the rig, located 146 miles east of Aberdeen, have been accounted for.
A HM Coastguard spokesperson said it had sent two helicopters to assist the platform facing strong waves in the North Sea.
Stena Drilling said the incident involving its semi-sub drilling started around 6.45am.
A company statement said: “All support services are being co-ordinated through the shore-based incident response team and every possible effort is being made to safeguard risk to personnel at the scene and resolve the situation.”
Meanwhile, a red weather warning issued by the Met Office ended earlier than expected although three severe flood warnings remain in place in Dundee and Angus.
They are in place in:
- Kinnaird/Bridge of Dun
- Finavon and Tannadice
- Brechin
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has warned Saturday's rain will "prolong flooding impacts" and cause additional disruption.
People In up to 100 properties across Angus in east Scotland have been rescued from their flooded homes, with some airlifted out, a local authority official said.
Jacqui Semple, head of risk, resilience and safety for Angus Council, said: “Fortunately the Met Office update and our Sepa update this morning is showing that we have an improving picture and the red warnings and our amber warnings have been reduced in timescale.
“So that means we’re looking at definite improvements in our river levels. We’re not out of the woods by a long shot.
“There’s still a lot of rain to come through, but less so, and there is still a lot of water lying across Angus.
“Lots of water in the upper catchments that will still have to come down into our rivers.”
Elsewhere, Jim Savege, Aberdeenshire Council’s chief executive, said there was a low level of incidents overnight and that the area’s rest centres have “not been used that much”.
He told BBC Breakfast: “We do have more of a concern though for the rest of the day, particularly around the River Don area, the Inverurie area, and Kintore, Kemnay.
“So we’re just working with other colleagues from Sepa to take a look in terms of what the flood levels are on the rivers, to see if we need to take any more action later today with residents there.”
