Ships break free from ice floes

All the ships trapped in thick ice in the Baltic Sea have now been freed.

Among them were three ferries and a cargo ship carrying over a thousand people.

Gale force winds hampered the efforts of the ice breakers in the area off the east coast of Sweden.

Ice breakers helped release the ferry Amorella at the edge of an archipelago north of Stockholm, rescue spokesman Jonas Sundin said.

Rescue helicopters and military hovercraft had been placed on standby to evacuate passengers if needed.

Mr Sundin said no-one was hurt and the ship was continuing its voyage to the Swedish capital today.

The Swedish Maritime Administration said the Amorella had 753 passengers and 190 crew on board. The 10-deck ship belongs to Viking Line, which operates Baltic Sea cruises between Sweden and Finland.

The other ships stuck in the area were the roll-on-roll-off ferry Sea Wind with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board. Mr Sundin said the ice breakers would try to set them free today.

Three other ferries that got stuck in the ice were able to break free yesterday.

One of those ships, the Finnfellow, collided lightly with the Amorella when the ice pressed the two ships together, but there was no major damage to either ship, officials said.

A total of about 50 ships were stuck in ice along Sweden’s eastern seaboard, said Johny Lindvall, who manages the maritime administration’s ice breaker service. Heavy ice cover is not uncommon further north, but the ice rarely gets thick enough in the Stockholm archipelago to trap powerful passenger ferries like the Amorella.

“There’s no danger for the passengers as long as there’s food and drink on board,” Mr Lindvall said.

SVT sports presenter Mats Nystrom, a passenger on the Amorella, told the Swedish broadcaster that there was no panic on the ship.

“The atmosphere is calm so there is no danger in that sense,” he said. He said the most dramatic event had been when the two ships touched.

“Suddenly in the loudspeakers there’s a voice saying that all passengers must immediately move to the front. Of course at that moment the passengers got worried and wondered what was happening,” he said.

The maritime administration said the ships had ignored warnings about the icy conditions.

“Normally we can handle this type of obstacle,” Viking Line chief executive Jan Karstrom said. “But in this case the wind is unfortunate. It’s blowing toward land and it means that (the ice) is packed more and more against land.”

Three Swedish icebreakers helped free the ship. Finland also dispatched an ice breaker to help out, said Benny Paulsson from a maritime rescue centre on Finland’s south-west coast.