Weather causes third maritime accident in Sweden

Maritime officials today inspected damage to a passenger ferry that ran aground in north-eastern Sweden after it was being towed during a heavy storm, the Swedish Coast Guard said.

It was the third weather-related accident in Sweden since Tuesday.

Thirty-eight passengers and 28 crew were aboard the Finnish-registered ferry Casino Express when it ran aground in shallow waters after a cable linking it to a tugboat broke while it was being towed into the harbour of Umeaa, 400 miles north of the capital, Stockholm.

There were no injuries.

On Tuesday, a Norwegian-registered tugboat ran aground in a heavy snowstorm and capsized near Gotland, an island in the Baltic Sea off Sweden’s south-eastern coast. One of the six Polish crewmen is missing and presumed dead.

Later the same day, a Bahamas-flagged freighter ran aground in the same area and started leaking oil. The ship is in no danger of sinking, but 10 of its 28 Polish and Bulgarian crew were evacuated as a precaution.