Oil from the Dutch cargo ship which sank on Tuesday has come ashore on the coast of Zeeland.

The Flinterstar collided with a tanker carrying liquid gas off the Belgian coast near Zeebrugge.

The 130-metre Flinterstar is on a sandbank and awaiting salvage. Officials from the water management authority said on Thursday no oil was expected to reach the Zeeland coast.

However, clumps of heavy oil have now washed up on a two kilometre long and one metre wide strip of sand between Westkapelle and Vlissingen.

The water management authority told Dutch media the amount of oil is ‘controllable’ and that once the tide turns on Friday a team of people with a number of bulldozers will remove it.

So far a hundred seagulls have been found covered in oil and one dead bird.