Cruise ship adrift after fire

A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew is adrift in the Indian Ocean after a generator fire left it without power.
A French fishing boat is reported to have been the first vessel to reach Costa Allegra, about 200 miles south of the Seychelles and a cargo ship is expected to make contact later today. It will be several hours before rescue tugs from Mahé arrive on the scene.
No-one was injured in the blaze, but the general emergency alarm was sounded and the 636 passengers were summoned to their muster stations in the ship’s public rooms. Emergency power is supplying the control room and communications equipment, but the blaze knocked out the vessel’s propulsion and disabled air-conditioning and the vacuum toilets.
Italian coastguards, who are monitoring the situation, say the ship is holding steady in five foot waves. Costa spokesman Giorgio Moretti says that when the tugs arrive, a decision will be made on where the vessel will be towed, depending on sea conditions.
Costa Allegra, a sister ship to Costa Concordia which ran aground off the coast of Italy in January, left Diego Suarez, Madagascar on Saturday and was due to reach the port of Victoria in the Seychelles on Tuesday.
Because it would later have been later heading into waters infested with Somali pirates, the ship is carrying a nine-man team of armed guards. However, its present location is believed to be a low-risk area.
The fire on Costa Allegra comes 15 months after a cruise ship operated by sister line Carnival was left adrift for days following an engine room blaze. The 3,006-passenger Carnival Splendor was in the Pacific, off the coast of Mexico and eventually had to be towed back to San Diego, California