Reuters
Posted Saturday , May 06, 2006 at 10:27Updated Saturday , May 06, 2006 at 11:05
London: Crew members managed to put out a fire in the engine room of a cruise liner with 708 people aboard off the coast of southeast England early on Saturday, a British coastguard official said.
"They smothered the engine room and have managed to extinguish the fire," said the official in the seaport of Dover, where the coastguard is coordinating the rescue.
The cruise liner had caught fire off the coast of southeast England early Saturday morning, a British coastguard official had said.
He said a call from the ship came in at 0400 hrs (0300 GMT) and fire and rescue services scrambled to reach the vessel, adding that the liner is called The Calypso and is operated by Louis Cruise Lines.
The official said firefighters were now on board the cruise ship assessing the situation in the engine room.
"It's very unlikely we will evacuate," he said.
Sky TV said earlier that the liner was 16 miles off Eastbourne, a seaside town on the southeast English coast.
The nationalities of the passengers were not immediately known.
The ship's crew were fighting the fire, which had broken out in the engine room, and were understood to have brought it under control.
Search and rescue helicopters and ships were on the way and other vessels in the area were giving assistance.
A cruise ship caught fire 32 km (20 miles) off the southeast coast of England. The blaze started in the engine-room of the Calypso, which had 708 passengers and crew onboard. 

The passengers were mainly Dutch.

Specialist firefighters transported by helicopter from the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service tackled the fire.

It was tugged to Southampton by the Anglican Monarch, a tug boat jointly operated by England and France. The relieved passengers left to boat 16 hours after the fire started. 

"A team will be going onboard to assess the situation, so time will tell," said the Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman.

There were no causualties and no evacuation.