A £22m luxury cruise ship, which measures 158m-long and 30m-wide, toppled over in Wenzhou, China during unusually high tides and heavy rain from Typhoon Bavi
A luxury cruise ship has been pictured after toppling over in a port following a ferocious storm.
Authorities in China said the huge vessel, which measures 158m-long and 30m-wide, dramatically listed and then tilted over after it was battered by Typhoon Bavi.
The Mingzhu Qihao, also known as Pearl No.7, which cost £22m to build, was moored at Yangfushan Puxi berth in Wenzhou, China when it began to become unstable shortly after 8pm on Tuesday.
No one was on board the hotel-style ship, which does not have a motor, when it toppled during the unusually high tides and heavy rain that battered the dock area.
Emergency services arrived at the scene within minutes with a plan to stabilise the ship and now an investigation is underway into what caused the ship to topple.
A staff worker told local media that there were teams on the ground handling the situation – and that there have been no casualties reported so far.
A spokesman for Wenzhou Mingzhu Cruise Company said: “The idle pontoon ship ‘Mingzhu Qihao’, which was moored at the Ou River Road Yangfushan Puxi platform, tilted during a spring tide flood.
“We immediately activated the contingency plan and relevant departments quickly arrived to handle the situation.” He added: “The exact cause is under further investigation.”
Deer District Emergency Management officials confirmed the ship, which was built in 2012, was not in operation and had no crew or passengers aboard at the time.
The ship has sat largely unused for 14 years after a string of setbacks. Plans to turn it into a five-star floating hotel with restaurants and luxury suites never took off.
Earlier attempts to moor it elsewhere sparked complaints from locals over blocked views, while technical and funding issues repeatedly delayed any official launch.
The dramatic tilt came as the ship was still idle at its current berth on the Ou River, leading to fresh attention now on the vessel’s troubled history and questions over its long-term future at the dock.
In 2012, the vessel made headlines when it got wedged under China’s Wenzhou Bridge after the crew found out the hard way that the towering ‘floating hotel’ was too tall.
