Some 1,300 people were evacuated safely from a blazing Norwegian passenger ferry off Sweden's west coast early yesterday. Fine weather helped to avert what could have been a major disaster, rescue crews said.
But a 73-year-old Norwegian woman, who suffered heart problems during the pre-dawn blaze and rescue, died in hospital some eight hours later.
By the end of the day 13 other people from the 1,167 passengers and 172 crew on board the Prinsesse Ragnhild remained in hospital being treated for shock and light smoke inhalation.
"Most are just in for observation and none of them is in a serious condition," police said.
The ship, owned by Norway's Color Group, was on a 19-hour trip from Kiel, Germany to Oslo when fire broke out in the engine room shortly after 2 a.m. (midnight GMT).
Passengers were loaded into inflatable lifeboats and transferred to some 20 fishing boats and other vessels that rushed to the scene in response to the ferry's distress signal.
Seven helicopters from Sweden, Norway and Denmark winched passengers to safety from the ship, which was about six miles off the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
Rescuers and passengers praised the crew for their calm and efficient handling of the emergency.
"The crew deserve all possible praise. They managed to keep people calm. Not even the children were crying," said Ms Unni Soerensen, on a trip to celebrate her parents' 46th wedding anniversary.
Mr Birger Knutsson, of the Swedish National Maritime Administration, said: "The calm weather was a major factor in the rescue operation going so well. The ship and crew also worked perfectly for a smooth evacuation. But it has been quite traumatic for the people out there."
Mr Rune Hukhelderg, a Norwegian fisherman from Trondheim, said many passengers at first thought the alarm was a safety drill.
"But then there was a lot of smoke on board and we could smell the fire," Mr Hukhelderg said. "After an hour we got into the rafts and we were in the sea for maybe one hour before we were picked up by a Norwegian chemical tanker. Most of the people were calm and it went well."
Within three hours the situation was under control and the fire extinguished.
Passengers were initially taken to a military base at Gothenburg but after the ferry was towed into dock, smoke-damaged but otherwise intact, they were taken by bus to collect cars and belongings which were not damaged.
Buses were arranged to drive passengers without cars on to Oslo, six hours away. The cause of the fire is not yet known. London insurance sources said the vessel was insured for $66 million. The emergency brought back memories of an incident in April
1990 when 158 people died in a fire on the Danish-owned ferry Scandinavian Star between Sweden and Norway.
The worst Nordic maritime disaster was in September 1994, when 852 people died after the Estonia ferry sank in rough seas on an overnight trip between Estonia and Sweden.