Reports from Venice say that the cruise ship Zenith, owned by Spanish cruise operator Pullmantur, a subsidiary of the Royal Caribbean Cruises, with 1, 500 people on board, was stranded since early Tuesday in the Venice Lagoon after a fire broke out in its engine room.
The fire was extinguished and no passengers or crew members were injured, according to the Gazzettino newspaper.
The ship was said to be about 20 kilometres off the city of Chioggia, which is situated on the southern tip of the lagoon and later in the day, Zenith was towed by four tugs to Venice, where Pullmantur has assembled a fleet of charter aircraft to fly passengers home.
Pullmantur is refunding cruise fares and reimbursing passengers for costs to return to their home cities and providing international passengers with accommodation to facilitate connections with flights.
Cruise ship traffic has increased exponentially in Venice, sparking protests from local community groups and environmental activists, with opposition growing to cruise ships being allowed to continue to sail so close to historic Venice, since last year’s Costa Concordia shipwreck off Italy’s west coast, in which 32 people died.