Eleven French vacationers and 4 crew members have been rescued by helicopter after their ship ran aground within the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard within the Arctic. (Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
Eleven French vacationers and 4 crew members have been rescued by helicopter after their ship ran aground within the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard within the Arctic, native authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
Nobody was harm within the incident, which occurred late Monday, the governor’s workplace mentioned in a press launch.
It’s not but identified why the vacationer vessel MS Isbjorn 2 ran aground in a bay of the Isfjord fjord, within the territory twice the dimensions of Belgium and positioned 1000km from the North Pole.
The 15 folks onboard have been rescued by helicopter and transported to Longyearbyen, the primary city of the archipelago, also referred to as Spitsbergen.
“Not one of the folks onboard have been bodily injured”, the authorities mentioned.
An investigation was launched to find out the reason for the accident.
MS Isbjorn 2 was towed to Longyearbyen.
In response to the authorities, no notable oil spill was detected within the fragile ecosystem, the place 65 % of the world is protected.
Tourism, alongside scientific analysis, is among the pillars of the economic system in Svalbard, having taken over from coal mining, which was the primary exercise for a very long time.
Earlier than Covid-19, as much as 140 000 folks a 12 months visited the archipelago, which is dwelling to fewer than 3 000 inhabitants.
