Viking Sky evacuation expected to continue through the night
The evacuation of passengers is continuing off the west cost of Norway after a Viking Ocean Cruises ship sent out a mayday signal when its engines failed in stormy conditions.
The 1,300 people onboard Viking Sky are being hoisted one-by-one from the ship and taken by rescue helicopter to a village near the Norwegian town of Molde.
Eight people have been injured, according to reports, which say the evacuation is taking place in windy conditions, amid eight-foot-high waves.
The storm is expected to last until at least midnight local time (11pm GMT).
According to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the evacuation is ‘likely to be a slow and dangerous process’. It said that, by 6pm, some 100 people had been rescued.
One passenger, an American named John Curry, told NRK: "We were having lunch when it began to shake.
"Window panes were broken and water came in. It was just chaos."
He said he would ‘rather forget’ the helicopter rescue, saying: "It was not fun."
The ship had been operating a 12-day cruise from Bergen, visiting Norwegian ports including Tromso and Stavanger before its scheduled arrival on Tuesday into Tilbury in the UK.
Picture: Oyvind Ekelund, via Twitter.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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