A cargo ship carrying about 3,000 cars on board, , including 350 Mercedes-Benz, heading from Bremerhaven in Germany to Egypt's Port Said, caught fire.
Authorities are having difficulty controlling the fire due to the complex situation of the shipment.
According to Reuters, the Dutch Coast Guard said that the fire killed one of the ship's crew and injured others.
The ship “Fermental Highway” carries the flag of Panama, with a length of 199 meters, and the fire is still burning in it until this moment.
The Dutch Coast Guard said that rescue ships sprayed water on the burning ship to cool it down, but using too much water could put the ship at risk of sinking.
"The fire is definitely not under control," said Edwin Versteig, a spokesman for the Dutch Waterways and Public Works Department. It is difficult to put out the fire, perhaps because of the cargo the ship was carrying.”
The cause of the fire is unknown, the Coast Guard said on its website, but a Coast Guard spokesperson earlier told Reuters it started near an electric vehicle.
Reuters quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the fire spread so quickly in the ship that 7 crew members jumped overboard.
Some of the crew members were injured as they jumped from a long distance over the water, while one crew member perished in the flames.
Some of the crew were rescued from the water, while the remaining 23 crew members were flown by helicopter away from the burning ship.
The Dutch authorities said that the injured were being treated for breathing problems, burns and broken bones.
Coast Guard spokesman Edwin Graniman said rescue experts are trying to determine the next steps for the burning ship.
The incident is the latest of several recent fires in car carriers.
Earlier this month, two New Jersey firefighters were killed and five injured in a fire on a freighter carrying hundreds of vehicles.
A fire destroyed thousands of luxury cars on a ship off the coast of the Portuguese Azores in February last year.
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