The ship lost power as much of the east coast was battered by high winds
An oil platform in the North Sea has been evacuated after a ship carrying radioactive material caught fire and began drifting in the Moray Firth.
The Parida was transporting a cargo of radioactive concrete waste when a fire broke out in one of her two funnels.
The blaze has been extinguished, but 52 workers were taken from the Beatrice platform by helicopter as a precaution.
Aberdeen coastguard said the ship was under tow and was heading to the Cromarty Firth to secure anchor.
The crew members will then decide whether to attempt to restart the engine.
The coastguard were alerted at about 20:00 on Tuesday as the Danish registered Parida was taking a cargo of radioactive concrete from Scrabster to Antwerp in Belgium.
The platform staff were flown to RAF Lossiemouth shortly before midnight. Parida was around seven miles from the platform at the time.
A Shetland Coastguard spokesman said: "The Parida is now under tow by the vessel Pacific Champion.
"The coastguard emergency towing vessel from Orkney was tasked to go and prevent the Parida from drifting but before the coastguard vessel arrived on scene the owners agreed a commercial tow with Pacific Champion."
There were no reports of any injuries.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said the Scottish government was "closely monitoring" the incident.
He said: "A Scottish government resilience meeting has taken place with key partners including Police Scotland and the Maritime Coastguard Agency, which is co-ordinating an operation to stabilise the vessel and ensure it is safely recovered to harbour.
"Ministers have been briefed and Scottish government officials are engaging closely with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the UK government and key partners to ensure appropriate response arrangements are in place."
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