France locks down 1,700 on cruise ship after 92-year-old dies

BORDEAUX: French authorities on Wednesday confined more than 1,700 passengers and crew on a British cruise ship docked in Bordeaux after an elderly passenger died, said officials, who played down any links to the hantavirus scare.

Dozens also suffered from upset stomachs aboard the Ambition — most of whose 1,233 passengers are from Britain or Ireland — which arrived in the western port of Bordeaux on Tuesday, with 514 Indian crew members also on board.

But health officials said there was no connection with the hantavirus outbreak, suspected of killing three passengers on the Dutch MV Hondius cruise ship that set sail from Argentina.

One 92-year-old passenger on the Ambition, run by the Ambassador Cruise Line company, had died and about 50 people have shown symptoms of stomach issues, the officials said.

Initial tests ruled out an outbreak of norovirus, a highly contagious form of gastroenteritis which causes vomiting and diarrhoea, but secondary tests were still underway, they added.

Food poisoning had not been excluded.

Passengers on board the Ambition showed peak symptoms on Monday when the ship was docked in Brest, the officials said. The 92-year-old died before they arrived at the port in France’s northwestern Brittany region.

The ship, which left the Shetland Islands north of Scotland on May 6, stopped in Belfast in Northern Ireland and Liverpool in England before reaching Bordeaux, from where it was scheduled to depart for Spain.

No security measures were in place around the ship as it was docked in Bordeaux on Wednesday, an AFP reporter said. Passengers were taking pictures of the French city from the deck.