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FERRY

Man feared drowned after ferry mishap

A man is believed to have drowned in the Baltic Sea after falling overboard from a ferry on Tuesday night.

Published: 26 November 2008 07:16 CET

Two helicopters and two ships spent time looking for the man, who was seen falling from the Silja Festival ferry as the boat traveled from Stockholm to the Latvian capital of Riga.

The incident took place as the ferry was traveling south east of Sandhamn on the outer edges of the Stockholm archipelago, near the Almagrundet shallows.

The boat turned around, but the crew found no trace of the man.

The search was called off around midnight after “all options for finding the missing person alive had been exhausted”, said the Swedish Maritime Administration (Sjöfartsverket) in a statement.

ACCIDENT

Grounded Finland ferry refloated and heading back to port

UPDATE: A ferry that ran aground next to islands between Finland and Sweden with nearly 430 crew and passengers on board, was refloated and heading for port, its owners said Sunday.

Published: 22 November 2020 09:00 CET
Updated: 22 November 2020 15:57 CET
Grounded Finland ferry refloated and heading back to port
The Viking Line ship Grace hit rocks in in the Aland archipelago. Photo AFP

The Viking Line's “Grace” hit rocks on Saturday afternoon while sailing between the Finnish port of Turku and the Swedish capital Stockholm, shortly before a stopover in Mariehamn, in the Aland archipelago, Finland's coast guard said.

The passengers had to spend the night on board, though there was no immediate danger as it was not taking on water. No one was hurt in the incident.

A tug boat helped refloat the ferry in the small hours of Sunday morning, the coast guard said on Twitter.

After disembarking around 260 passengers at Mariehamn, it went on to its home port of Turku in Finland, a Viking Line spokeswoman told AFP Sunday. It would undergo repairs in the coming days, she added.

Although the cause of the accident has yet to be established, the coast guard said there were strong winds in the area at the time.

The company cancelled its Saturday ferry service, which was to have been taken by a smaller vessel, because of a storm warning.

In September, another Viking Line ferry, the Amorella, ran aground on the same Aaland Island and the passengers had to be evacuated.

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