Egyptian cruise ship in Limassol pile up

A PANAMANIAN-flagged cruise ship involved in a collision at Limassol port on Monday night sailed into the sunset without assessing the damages, it emerged yesterday.

A three-ship collision caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage, injured a sailor and disabled a crane belonging to the Ports Authority, authorities said.

The Egyptian-owned Al Salam, which is flying under the Panamanian open registry, a flag of convenience (FoC), was carrying 734 passengers on a Mediterranean cruise. It had stopped over in Limassol on a day trip.

A Ports Authority spokesman said that under circumstances which were still unknown, the Al Salamhit the cargo ship Rio1, which in turn hit another cargo ship, the Bianca.

A sailor aboard the Rio1was slightly injured by the impact.

The Al Salam’s funnel then hit the Ports Authority’s crane causing serious damage, and the cruise ship sailed off without notifying the authorities or assessing its own damage. “It was heading for another port in the Mediterranean before going back to Egypt,” a spokesman at the port said. “It will be back in Cyprus next week.”

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