Shell reveals North Sea spill

An oil spill from a Shell platform in the North Sea has been labelled the worst in the UK for a decade.

Shell announced that the leak in a flow line leading to the Gannet Alpha oil platform 113 miles off the coast of Aberdeen has spilt an estimated 216 tonnes of oil into the sea.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it was a "substantial" spill, but insisted that the oil should not reach the coast and will disperse naturally.

"Although small in comparison to the Macondo, Gulf of Mexico, incident, in the context of the UK Continental Shelf, the spill is substantial," said a spokesman for the DECC.

However, he added that the organisation continues to monitor the situation.

A spokesman for RSPB Scotland told Sky News that while it had not been given access to enough information to draw firm conclusions, it was concerned about the welfare of seabirds in the area.