Swedish ferry towed to port after fire on car deck

The blaze appeared to have started on a refrigeration lorry on the car deck of the Stena Scandica, which was carrying 300 people at the time. 

“It seems the fire started in a cooling truck”, said Stefan Elfstrom, a spokesman for Stena Line, the company operating the ferry, adding that it has been “a limited fire”, with “mainly smoke”. 

Lisa Mjorning, a spokesperson with the Swedish Maritime Administration spokeswoman, told AFP that now the fire was out, the ferry would be towed back to Nynashamn, south of Stockholm, where passengers would be able to disembark. 

“There are no injuries on board and there has been no evacuation,” she said. 

At the time of the fire, the vessel had been located off the island of Gotska Sandon on Sweden’s southeastern coast.