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Fire forces cruise liner rescue
PAPEETE, Tahiti (Reuters) -- Rescue teams plucked 127 passengers to safety from a luxury cruise liner that caught fire near the Pacific Ocean isle of Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Local government leaders flatly ruled out a terror attack. Tourism minister Brigitte Vanizette said that the fire which apparently broke out in the engine rooms of the four-masted vessel, Wind Song, on Sunday was "purely accidental." "This was an one-off event which ended well and has strictly nothing to do with acts of terrorism," she said. All the passengers aboard, mostly U.S. citizens, were taken off unhurt, officials at a crisis centre on the Pacific archipelago said. Christian Jouve, chief of cabinet at the High Commissioner's Office of French Polynesia, also ruled out any criminal element. He said all were safe and sound and that one pregnant woman and an old man suffering from sea sickness had been hospitalised. A passenger ferry, the Aremiti, rushed to the scene to help with the initial evacuation after the captain raised the alarm. Two planes were due to bring the tourists back to Papeete, the capital of nearby Tahiti. Windstar Cruises, a U.S. company specialising in exclusive, exotic cruises, issued a statement from its Seattle headquarters saying: "All 127 passengers and 92 crew are safe and there were no injuries. "The Wind Song, a motor sailing yacht, had a fire in her engine room. The cause of the engine room fire is unknown at this time," the statement said. The crisis centre said passengers included 19 Canadians, as well as Mexicans, Argentines and two French nationals. Most of the crew, including Indonesians and Filipinos, were evacuated. Over a dozen crew members stayed on board to try to contain the fire within the engine rooms while waiting the arrival of firefighters on French navy vessels from Papeete. Witnesses contacted by Reuters as the rescued passengers started to arrive in Tahiti by plane said the flames had not engulfed the ship and appeared to be mostly confined inside. Crisis centre officials said the motorised liner that has four masts with sails, was badly damaged but there was little risk of it sinking. It would be towed to Tahiti, they said. Windstar Cruises said the passengers, who began their cruise on Friday, would be refunded and offered a free trip in future. Vanizette went to pains to quash any media speculation after the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed over 3,000 people in the U.S. and a spate recent lethal attacks at a disco in Bali, Indonesia and a hotel in Kenya. "This is one of the safest destinations, and our tourist friends, Americans above all, must know that," she said. Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has been blamed for the U.S. attacks. Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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