Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ACCIDENT

Swedish passenger ferry rams ship in German port

A Swedish passenger ferry slammed into another ship as it was pulling into the north German port of Travemünde on Thursday evening.

Published: 4 May 2012 07:14 CEST

Swedish passenger ferry rams ship in German port

The TT-Lines ferry Nils Holdersson rammed into the side of the Urd, a ferry operated by Scandlines, ripping a hole in the Urd’s hull.

No injuries were reported, however.

“No passengers or crew members were hurt,” said TT-Line spokesperson Eva Jönsson to the TT news agency.

She said that there were 63 passengers and around 50 crew members onboard the combined passenger and freight ferry Nils Holgersson when it collided with the Urd around 6.15pm on Thursday evening.

“There was a hole in the hull and some water came in, but fire crews went onboard and pumped out the water,” a Scandlines spokesperson told TT.

The Urd, which shuttles cargo between Travemünde and the Latvian port of Ventspils, is set to be examined by German maritime authorities.

It also remains unclear the extent to which TT-Lines passenger ferry traffic between Germany and Sweden will be disrupted a result of the accident.

The Nils Holgersson remains docked in Travemünde.

Jönsson explained that she was unaware as to what sort of physical damage the TT-Lines ferry may have suffered.

However, the Nils Holgersson’s10pm Thursday night departure from Travemünde was cancelled, as well as the scheduled 10am Friday departure from Trelleborg in southern Sweden.

However, passengers who had planned on taking the Nils Holgersson back from Germany will be able to instead take the TT-Lines ferry Robin Hood/Nils Dacke, which departs from Travemünde at 2.30am on Sunday morning.

TT/The Local/dl

Follow The Local on Twitter

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021

Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The battle for custody of Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the May accident that killed 14 people, has captured headlines since his maternal grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, brought him to Israel on a private jet last month.

The child lost his parents, younger brother and great-grandparents in the May 23 accident near the top of the Mottarone mountain in the northwestern Piedmont region, where the family was out on a Sunday excursion to the scenic spot served by the cable car.

The cable car’s pull cable snapped just before it reached destination. It then flew backwards, dislodging itself from a second, supporting cable, and crashed to the ground.

Investigations later revealed that emergency brakes that could have stopped the car on its supporting cable, avoiding the tragedy, had been deliberately deactivated to avoid delays following a technical malfunction.

Three individuals responsible for the cable car’s management were subsequently arrested.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP.

Peleg has insisted that he drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland before jetting him back to Israel – instead of returning him paternal aunt Aya Biran, who lives in northern Italy – because Eitan’s late parents wanted him to be raised in the Jewish state.

But Peleg has become the subject kidnapping probe by Italian prosecutors and Israeli police questioned him over those allegations last month.

A statement Monday from the Tel Aviv court where Aya Biran had filed a complaint said judges “did not accept the grandfather’s claim that the aunt has no custody rights”.

It recognised an Italian judgement that established Biran as a legitimate guardian and said Peleg had “unlawfully” removed the boy from his aunt’s care.

The court “ordered the return of the minor to his usual place of residence in Italy”.

The court also found that “a connection” between the surviving members of the Italy- and Israel-based relatives was in Eitan’s “best interests”.

Peleg was also ordered to pay Biran’s legal fees, amounting to 70,000 shekels ($22,000).

READ ALSO:

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021.

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The case has stirred emotions in Israel, and throngs of journalists had surrounded the Tel Aviv court for hearings last month, with some pro-Peleg protesters insisting it was wrong to send a Jewish child out of Israel.

Before judges ordered the sides to stop talking to the media, Peleg told Israel’s Channel 12 in September that his grandson was “in the place where he is supposed to be, in his home, in Israel.”

Eitan and his parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg, had been living in Italy, where Amit Biran was studying medicine, together with their other child, Tom.

Eitan suffered severe chest and abdominal injuries and spent a week in intensive care after the May accident that occurred when a cable snapped on the aerial tram bringing weekend visitors to the top of the Piedmont region’s Mottarone mountain.

The accident was one of Italy’s worst in over two decades.

Url copied to clipboard!