Four Irish passengers, who were forced to evacuate a cruise ship which hit ice on the Antarctic Ocean yesterday morning, have been flown to the Chilean mainland.
They were among 100 people who were evacuated to lifeboats when the MV Explorer hit and iceberg and began to sink.
After enduring temperatures of minus five degrees, passengers were transferred uninjured to a Norwegian cruise ship which had gone to the rescue.
The tourists and crew spent the night at a military base on a nearby Chilean island.
The Explorer, a Liberian-registered cruiseliner that was chartered by a Canadian tour company, struck an iceberg off near the island of San Carlos and sank yesterday at about 6.30pm.
