Fire on Baltic Sea ferry under control, no injuries

A fire was on Monday reported on a passenger ferry bound for Sweden with 300 people but officials said the blaze was "limited" and under control. No one has been injured. The ferry was north of Sweden's Baltic Sea island of Gotland when the fire broke out, Swedish broadcaster SVT said.

Stefan Elfstrom, spokesperson at the ferry company Stena Line, said told SVT that they had been informed of a fire "on a limited scale (and) firefighting is currently underway. We have no reports of personal injuries." According to the Swedish Maritime Administration, the fire was under control and while there was smoke there are "no open flames," spokeswoman Lisa Mjorning said.

Elfstrom added that passengers on board were being taken care of.


The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said a tire caught fire on the car deck as the ferry traveled from Ventspils in Latvia to Nynashamn in Sweden. Seven nearby ships and three helicopter were sent to the scene as a precaution.

Norwegian newspaper VG quoted passenger Giedrius Didoras as saying that passengers all had gathered on the upper deck.

"The ferry has stopped," he said. "We can't see any of the flames, but we can see smoke coming from both sides of the ferry."

The Goteborg, Sweden-based ferry company says it is one of the word's largest ferry companies with 38 vessels that take more than 25,000 trips a year. It has 4,300 employees across Europe.