Oslo (TAN): Rescuers are working to airlift around 1,300 people from a Viking Sky cruise ship that got stranded off the Norway coast after an engine failure, media reports said.
A mayday call was sent out by the cruise ship on Saturday afternoon after it experienced loss of power and was drifting towards land in bad weather.
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The ship, which started operations in June 2017, eventually managed to start one engine and anchor in Hustadvika Bay, between Alesund and Trondheim cities, reports said.
“Our first priority was for the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and our crew, and in close cooperation with the Norwegian Coast Guard, the captain decided to evacuate all guests from the vessel by helicopter,” the cruise company Viking Ocean Cruises said in a statement.
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Rescue teams with helicopters airlifted the passengers and crew over several hours in the bad weather.
The next sailing of the ship to Scandinavia & the Kiel Canal, which was scheduled to start on March 27, stands cancelled.
Most of the passengers were from the US and UK, reports added.
