Hot and tired passengers disembarking from a disabled cruise ship in the Seychelles said they had prepared to abandon ship when fire broke out in the engine room three days ago.

A cruise ship from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, on which 32 people died after it ran aground off the coast of Italy last month, is adrift in the Indian Ocean with more than 1,000 people on board following a fire.

The families of a missing British couple feared to have been hijacked by pirates faced an anxious wait for news today.