Costa Crociere’s M/V Costa Allegra, sailing over 200 miles south-west of the Seychelles, has suffered a fire in its engine room. Although the crew managed to extinguish the fire, the ship lost its propulsion. Today, the Seychelles’ coast guard reported a French fishing vessel has reached the ship and is currently towing the cruise ship to the island Desroches.
At the island Desroches the passengers will disembark.
No Casualties
Costa Crociere, which also owns the Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized in Italy in January, has reported the fire did not spread to any other area of the ship and that there have been no injuries or casualties. On board Costa Allegra there are 636 passengers of 25 nationalities and 413 crew members.
Piracy
The ship sails in an area where Somali pirates have hijacked foreign ships for ransom. The Costa Allegra was however prepared for this threat and has nine Italian marines on board.
The Seychelles’ coast guard expects two tug boats will reach the vessel later today. In due time they will tow the ship to Port Victoria at the Seychelles with protection from the coast guard and navy.
Caption: Costa Allegra in Split (picture Ivan T., https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Costa_Allegra_in_Split_on_2011-07-08_%282%29.jpg[Wikipedia])
