Passengers escape burning ferry

More than 200 passengers and crew have been evacuated off a ferry engulfed in flames in the Baltic Sea, Reuters reported.

The Lithuanian-flagged ferry caught fire near the German island of Fehmarn.

Some 28 people were injured and 23 were still in hospital, a police spokesman said. All the injuries were light and most were from smoke inhalation, he said.

The passenger and car ferry Lisco Gloria was en route from the northern city of Kiel to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda when an explosion occurred on the upper deck around midnight, said the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies based in Cuxhaven.

A technical defect in one of the trucks on the ferry may have started the fire, Reuters said.

- AGENCIES