Azamara Quest is escorted to port by US and Philippines navies after suffering engine failure in waters patrolled by pirates
A stricken luxury cruise ship stranded at sea for 24 hours because of a fire has safely reached a Malaysian port.
The Azamara Quest, carrying 600 passengers and 411 crew, suffered an engine-room fire on Friday that disabled the engines and left the ship temporarily stranded off the southern Philippines coast.
The 11-deck ship finally reached the harbour of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late on Sunday, after spending more than a day in waters prowled by pirates, according to Malaysian maritime officials and the ship's owner.
The fire, the latest in a string of cruise ship accidents, was put out on Saturday. Five crew members suffered smoke inhalation and one required serious medical attention.
Filipino officials said a US navy vessel had joined the escort flotilla comprising several Philippine navy ships and a coastguard ship. The vessels followed the cruise ship until it crossed into Malaysian waters, where a Malaysian patrol ship escorted it to Sandakan.
The waters off the coast of the southern Philippines are key hunting grounds for pirates and the Abu Sayyaf, a deadly Islamic militant group.
The Abu Sayyaf wants an independent Islamic nation in the south of the Roman Catholic Philippines, and has been responsible for high profile kidnappings of westerners, including abducting tourists from a nearby Malaysian resort island in 2000.
The rest of the cruise has been cancelled, said Azamara Club Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. Most of the passengers are from the US and western Europe.
The Azamara Quest was on a 17-night journey and had departed from Hong Kong on Monday, calling at Manila, Balikpapan, Palapo, Benoa Bali, Semarang and Komodo in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
An official from Borneo Laju, a local agent appointed by Azamara Club Cruises to repair the ship and assist the passengers, said the guests would spend the night on the ship at Sandakan and disembark on Monday.
"Engineers were able to repair one of the engines, so there was air conditioning and running water. It was not so bad," said the Borneo Laju official, who declined to be named.
The Azamara fire was the latest in a string of cruise ship accidents. In January 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy, and in February a fire on the Costa Allegra left the ship stranded in waters patrolled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days. Both ships were run by Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator.