Rescue teams saved 127 passengers from a luxury cruise liner that caught fire yesterday near the Pacific Ocean isle of Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
Witnesses said the flames had not engulfed the ship and appeared to be mostly confined inside.
Tourism minister Ms Brigitte Vanizette said that the fire, which apparently broke out in the engine rooms of the four-masted vessel Wind Song, was "purely accidental."
"This was a one-off event which ended well and has strictly nothing to do with acts of terrorism," she said.
All the passengers aboard, mostly US citizens, were taken off the ship without injury, officials on the Pacific archipelago said.
A passenger ferry, the Aremiti, rushed to the scene to help with the initial evacuation after the captain raised the alarm. Two planes were due to bring the tourists back to Papeete, the capital of nearby Tahiti.