Stricken Italian liner docks in Seychelles
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A crippled Italian cruise liner with over 1,000 people onboard docked in the Seychelles on Thursday, three days after a fire disabled it in pirate-infested waters.
Passengers crowded on the decks waved as the Costa Allegra threw ropes to the port in Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles archipelago, where it was towed after engine failure in the Indian Ocean.
Medical teams and ambulances were on standby as people waited to disembark, although passengers cheering from the decks appeared to be in good spirits.
"We're here to provide water and psychological support because the passengers have been in a very stressful condition in the dark," said Red Cross worker Sandra Sabury.
Passengers spent most of the time crowded on the Costa Allegra's decks fighting sweltering temperatures since an engine fire knocked out power on Monday, cutting electricity, air conditioning and shutting bathrooms.
Seychelles authorities have prepared hundreds of hotel rooms on the idyllic Indian Ocean island and secured seats on aircraft to fly the Costa Allegra's 1,000 passengers and crew back home.
Italian investigators also awaited the arrival in the capital Victoria of the liner, a converted container ship, which belongs to the same fleet as the doomed Costa Concordia that smashed into rocks off Tuscany last month.
Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean-Paul Adam, at the port for the ship's arrival, said passengers were welcome on the Indian Ocean archipelago, famed for its palm-fringed white sand beaches.
"They've had a tough experience on board that ship, but hopefully they'll feel a lot better once... we look after them," Adam said.
"A few years ago we did have a cruise ship that was diverted here because of an attack by pirates, so we have seen something similar to this before... luckily we've not had any similar pirate incidents since."
Giant piles of multicoloured suitcases were offloaded onto the port, while women holding yellow flowers and signs saying ‘flight to Rome/Milan’ waited beside a long line of buses, watched by around 30 journalists.
"There are buses ready to take those passengers who are leaving to the airport," said Eric Renard of Creole Travel Services, which is coordinating passengers once they disembark, in collaboration with the ship owners.
"Boats will take those who are staying on to the other islands where they have rooms in hotels waiting for them."
The fire broke out near the ship's generators in the engine room as the Costa Allegra was making its way from Madagascar, which it departed on Saturday, to the Seychelles, where it had been due to arrive on Tuesday.
Emergency crews on board extinguished the fire after a few hours and no-one was injured, but the liner was left powerless and adrift. No sign of the fire was seen on the outside of the ship.
The Costa Allegra is owned by the same company as the much larger Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio and keeled over last month with 4,229 people on board in an accident that claimed 32 lives.
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