The evacuation of passengers is continuing off the west cost of Norway after a Viking Ocean Cruises ship sent out a mayday signal when its engines failed in stormy conditions.
The 1,300 people onboard Viking Sky are being hoisted one-by-one from the ship and taken by rescue helicopter to a village near the Norwegian town of Molde.
Eight people have been injured, according to reports, which say the evacuation is taking place in windy conditions, amid eight-foot-high waves.
The storm is expected to last until at least midnight local time (11pm GMT).
According to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the evacuation is ‘likely to be a slow and dangerous process’. It said that, by 6pm, some 100 people had been rescued.
One passenger, an American named John Curry, told NRK: "We were having lunch when it began to shake.
"Window panes were broken and water came in. It was just chaos."
He said he would ‘rather forget’ the helicopter rescue, saying: "It was not fun."
The ship had been operating a 12-day cruise from Bergen, visiting Norwegian ports including Tromso and Stavanger before its scheduled arrival on Tuesday into Tilbury in the UK.
Picture: Oyvind Ekelund, via Twitter.
