Passengers wait for rescue in frozen Baltic Sea
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Icebreakers have been deployed to free approximately 50 vessels trapped by ice off the coast of Sweden. All the ships between Stockholm and the Aland Islands have now been freed but there are plenty more further north still waiting for the icebreakers to clear their path home.
The trapped vessels include several passenger ferries and a number of cruise liners.
Strong Arctic winds have frozen southern stretches of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, leaving many holidaymakers stranded.
Over 2000 ferry passengers are marooned on a number of ferries run by Viking Line, Tallink and Anedin Lines, some of which have since been freed from their icy confines.
Despite severe weather warnings earlier this week, many ferry operators decided to ignore the recommendation to suspend operations.
“This is the worst ice cover we have seen since 1996,” the Swedish Maritime Administration told The Times newspaper.
Many of the vessels were bound for Aland, a Finnish island where many Swedes travel to buy alcohol, as well as make use of cheap onboard duty-free purchases.
Apart from efforts by icebreakers to clear the way for the stranded ships, helicopters and hovercrafts have also been put on standby, in what has been the Baltic’s harshest winter in 15 years.
