50 ships, thousands of people, stuck in Baltic Sea ice

By Nina Larson (AFP)

STOCKHOLM — Around 50 ships, including large ferries carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea, with many unable to move until Friday, Swedish maritime authorities said.

Several vessels, including at least one passenger ferry carrying more than 1,000 people, had collided with each other as they drifted amid huge blocks of moving ice.

But the Viking Line ferry company insisted “there was at no time any danger to the passengers.”

Around 50 commercial vessels and as many as six large passenger ferries had been stuck in the ice Thursday, Johny Lindvall of the Swedish Maritime Administration’s ice breaker unit told AFP around 1930 GMT.

Two of the ferries, including the large Isabella passenger ferry carrying 1,322 passengers and crew, had been freed, he said.

Four other ships, including the Amorella, another passenger ferry carrying 1,313 people, were still stuck.

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Image source: AFP

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