Italian cruise ship adrift off Seychelles taken in tow Skip to main content

Italian cruise ship adrift off Seychelles taken in tow

BBC

Costa Allegra from Indian Navy aircraft following distress call. Image: Indian Navy  
 An Indian Navy aircraft took this picture of the ship following its distress call

Related Stories

An Italian cruise ship left adrift in the Indian Ocean with more than 1,000 people on board following a power failure, has been taken in tow.

A French fishing vessel is taking the Costa Allegra to a nearby island where passengers will be disembarked before being transferred to the Seychelles.

A fire in the ship's generator room on Monday caused it to lose all power.

The ship is from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, which capsized off the Italian coast in January, killing 32.

The BBC's Katy Watson on Seychelles says that the ship is being towed to the Desroches island, near Alphonse island, south-west of the Seychelles.

Once there the passengers will be disembarked to the one hotel on the island, and then await transfer to the main Seychelles island of Mahe.

Tugs sent from Mahe are due to meet up with the Costa Allegra at around 0900 GMT, our correspondent adds.

The vessel has no air-conditioning or cooking facilities and an emergency generator powering the radio "could fail at any minute", the Italian coast guard says.

Nationalities of passengers

  • 135 Italians
  • 127 French
  • 97 Austrians
  • 90 Swiss
  • 38 Germans
  • 31 Britons
Earlier, Commander Cosimo Nicastro from the Italian coast guard confirmed that the French-registered ocean-going trawler had reached the ship.

The ship's owner, Costa Cruises, has stressed that the Allegra - which had been drifting about 32km (20 miles) from Alphonse Island, one of the atolls in the Seychelles - is steady and conditions are safe. No-one has been injured, officials said.

The company says it is liaising with passengers' families via their emergency contact numbers, and has reached two-thirds of them. Contact has been made with the relatives of all the crew.

Families in the UK can call the company's emergency line on 020 7940 3300.
'Ship stable'
 
Italian authorities have directed three merchant ships and another fishing vessel towards the stricken cruise ship.

Authorities in the Seychelles earlier said that a plane had flown overhead and reported that the ship did not appear to be in danger.

Costa Cruises said that the ship sent out a distress signal when the fire broke out, and all passengers and crew not involved in fighting the fire assembled at the muster stations.
Most electric lights on board the ship are off as the batteries are being used to keep essential machinery going.

A spokesman said the situation on board was calm and the ship was stable.
Seychelles map
There are 636 passengers and 413 crew on board the Costa Allegra, which left Madagascar on Saturday.

It was due to arrive in the Seychelles on Tuesday.

Further destinations on its itinerary include Alexandria and Naples in the Mediterranean Sea.
Somali pirates are known to operate in the area where the Allegra was adrift, though they have never seized a cruise ship.

Nine members of the Italian navy's anti-pirate unit are on board the ship as a precaution.
A facility on Costa Cruises' website allowing people to track the Allegra's position says that "data transmission is temporarily suspended".

The company says the Allegra received its regularly scheduled maintenance in dry dock in October 2011.

The Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio on 13 January.
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, has been accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all those aboard were evacuated. He denies any wrongdoing

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera

The Life Story of A Distinguished And Outstanding Bhikkhu The Most Venerable Saradawpharagree Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera The Buddhist missionary Saradaw Ashin U Chandramani was endowed with great gifts and led a famous and long life. He was a very well known, distinguished and outstanding Bhikkhu Mahathera. While living in the Kushinagar Monastery, a place close to where the Lord Buddha had passed away to Nirvana, the Government of India had offered, and he had accepted, the highest, most honourable and respected title "Guru Guru MahaGuru". He became the first ever President of all Buddhists in India.A World Buddhist Conference took place in Kathmandu during the reign of King Mahindra of Nepal. The Conference was very well attended by over one hundred thousand Buddhists from various parts of the world and it was opened by King Mahindra himself. As requested by the King, Saradawpharagree blessed all the participants with the power of Triple Gems...

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do...

Three Dead, Seven Injured by Artillery Shells in Two Incidents in Myanmar’s Mrauk-U

By MIN AUNG KHINE 2 December 2019 Sittwe, Rakhine State –Three Mrauk-U township residents died and four others were injured when an artillery shell struck their community in the Ale Zay quarter of Mrauk-U town on Monday afternoon after 4 p.m. A month-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman died, according to Dr. Khin Maung Yin, the head of Mrauk-U hospital. He said, “A man and three other women were injured. One of the women sustained severe injures to her left leg and her right knee was dislocated. The injured will be operated on.” Details of what occurred were not yet known. A few hours earlier, three civilians were injured when an artillery shell fell on the village of Na Leik in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, on Monday at around 1 p.m., according to Yan Aung Pyin village-tract administrator U Sein Hla Aung. Two females, aged 13 and 27, and an 18-year-old male were injured in the incident, he said. Three people were hit by shrapnel and we have...