MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Greek cruise vessel runs aground: 280 pax rescued

Cruise <i>Gioris</i>

An investigation is underway after 280 foreign tourists had to be rescued on Thursday when their cruise ship ran aground in the Aegean Sea, Greek officials said.

The 'Giorgis' carrying mostly US, Russian and Japanese tourists, got stuck on a reef north of the Saronic Gulf island of Poros, about 50km south of Athens, but there were no injuries. "The evacuation is finished and we are making the final checks to make sure everyone is safe," a merchant marine ministry official, who requested anonymity, said. There were also 35 crew members on board the Giorgis which was on a one-day, three-island cruise. The coastguard said two ships, a C130 transport plane and numerous fishing boats had assisted the evacuation, while four coastguard vessels and a helicopter were standing by. The rescued passengers were taken to Poros, they included 103 people from Japan, 58 Americans and 56 from Russia along with a number of other nationalities. On Poros, medical crews were on standby as passengers came ashore, many wearing bright orange lifejackets and wrapped in foil blankets. "Nobody suffered a scratch and everything went very well. There was no panic and nobody was hurt," Dimitris Stratigos, the mayor of Poros, said. "We were lucky, thank God". The vessel is one of several that run popular day trips between Piraeus, near Athens, and the nearby islands of Poros, Hydra and Aegina. "We're glad to be on solid ground," said Phedra Ballard, a tourist from New Jersey, US. She said that when the ship struck the reef "nobody knew what was going on". "There were tables and chairs falling over, people started falling; we got a little scared but then people pulled on their life-jackets. It was like they had done it before," she said. Another American passenger, Mark Skione from Minneapolis said the ship went "from full cruising speed to a dead stop". He said the rescue operation took around three hours: "It was not very well organised, there was no information, no announcement". Apostolos Traikambis, one of the boatmen who helped in the rescue said many local boat owners went to help. He said the evacuation itself was calm: "The crew on the boat were great; they kept the morale of the passengers high." The ship, operated by the Hydraiki Naval company, was running day-long cruises in the area; no-one from the company has made any immediate comment. Weather conditions were apparently good and the coastguard said it was not yet known why it had run aground. Deputy Merchant Marine minister Panos Kammenos told reporters that the accident was under investigation, and moved to allay fears about the safety of their ships. Last April, the cruise ship 'Sea Diamond' sank in the port of the Cycladic island of Santorini after running aground. More than 1,500 passengers and crew were rescued, but a French tourist and his daughter remain officially missing and feared drowned. "Greece is a safe destination and Greek ships operate according to international law," said Kammenos as he waited for the evacuated passengers arrive at Piraeus harbor, near Athens. "We are a naval country with hundreds of islands, and hundreds of ships traveling on a 24-hour basis. Such incidents prove we are in a position to handle such events," he said. The ministry said the Giorgis was taking on large amounts of water, but that it was not in immediate danger of sinking. Mayor Stratigos said divers were checking how badly the ship had been damaged, while it was still on the reef, and said that there had been no pollution due to leakage of fuel. He said the rescuers were helped by good weather and the fact that the incident happened during daylight hours.