Cruise passengers killed by window shards

Two cruise liner passengers were killed by a shower of glass shards when giant freak waves smashed windows on their luxury ship.

Their ordeal aboard the Louis Majesty emerged when it docked for repairs in Barcelona today.

The ship’s owner and operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the vessel was struck yesterday by three “abnormally high” waves more than 33 feet high that broke glass windshields in the forward section.

French passenger Claude Cremex, 73, said he was in his cabin resting because of the rough seas when the walls of water hit the Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty, which was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew.

Mr Cremex said he did not see the waves but later viewed the damage.

“It was spectacular,” he said as the ship sat docked at Barcelona’s port with passengers sunning themselves on deck the day after the accident.

“A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded,” said Mr Cremex, who was travelling with his wife. “Many people were very frightened.”

A company spokesman said 14 passengers who suffered only minor injuries were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Arrangements have been made to fly all the passengers home today and the ship will carry on with its normal cruise schedule later this month after repairs are completed.

He said the two dead passengers were killed by the glass shards and ripped-out window frames and furniture.

“It was three waves, one after the other. The damage was done by the second and the third waves. We are talking about waves that exceeded 10 metres in height. This was unforeseen and unpredicted because the weather was not really that bad,” he said.

The waves smashed windows in a public area on deck five on the forward part of the vessel. The dead passengers were German and Italian.

The ship was on a 12-day cruise from Genoa and Marseilles calling at Tangiers, Casablanca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Cadiz, Cartagena, Barcelona and had been due to return to Genoa on today .

“Louis Cruises extends its sincere condolences to the families of the two victims and its full support to the injured passengers while expressing its deep sorrow for the incident,” the company said.