Norwegian coastal cruise catches fire: 2 dead and dozens injured

Friday, September 16th 2011 - 06:42 UTC

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MS Nordlys was carrying 262 people on board when it caught fire

Two people have died in a fire that broke out in the engine room of a Norwegian fjord cruise ship, forcing hundreds to evacuate and injuring up to a dozen. The ferry had 262 people on board, of which roughly 200 were passengers.

Images showed smoke billowing from the ferry in the port of the city of Alesund on Thursday.

Police said in a statement that two people had died and they had received unconfirmed information that an additional four people were missing.

Hospital officials said six people had been taken to hospital, at least two with serious burns and smoke injuries.

The operator of the ship said three crewmembers were among those sent to hospital.

It also said some of its crew is searching the ship to make sure all the 262 people on board had been evacuated.

“The fire is not under control yet” Anders Bang Andersen of the Rescue Coordination Centre told Agencie France-Presse.

“There are plenty of (firefighting) resources at the scene” he said, roughly three hours after the ship Nordlys called for assistance on Thursday.

The ship, one of the Hurtigruten Company's coastal cruisers, was at sea off the south-western city of Alesund when the blaze broke out and was quickly escorted to port.

Andersen did not have specific information about the nationalities of those aboard, but said most of the tourists on the Hurtigruten ships are from Norway, though there are often foreign tourists as well.