A ferry carrying roughly 300 people became stranded in the Baltic Sea Tuesday after experiencing an engine failure.
According to the Associated Press, no injuries were reported and an evacuation of the Regina Seaways wasn’t immediately necessary.
The ship broke down in international waters off of Kaliningrad, Russia between Poland and Lithuania. It was traveling between the ports of Kiel, Germany and Klaipeda, Lithuania.
The ferry’s operator, Copenhagen-based DFDS Seaways said the malfunction created smoke, triggering the vessel’s fire extinguishing system in the engine room.
“We are talking about a malfunction in the engine room that caused a lot of smoke,” DFDS spokesman Gert Jakobsen told the AP. “Right now we are inspecting the engine room to find out whether the ship can sail on its own or needs to be tugged.”
“On these kinds of crossings, we have people from Germany, the Baltic countries and Russia. We cannot say now who was onboard,” the spokesman added, noting that the “situation is under control.”
There was an explosion and #fire on board the #DFDS #ferry #ReginaSeaways in the #BalticSea
The vessel was sailing from Germany’s Kiel to Lithuania’s Klaipeda.
The situation seems under control and 350+ passengers are safe
The vessel drifts waiting for assistance pic.twitter.com/EC4ADF4Pfu
— Seimen Burum (@SeimenBurum) October 2, 2018
Following the incident, passengers assembled at muster stations in preparation for a possible evacuation of the ship.
Constructed in 2010, the Regina Seaways has a capacity of 500 passengers. The ship was also carrying cars and trucks.