SPANISH FERRY IN COLLISION AT SEA

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As all eyes looked towards the nautical disaster that unfolded off the coast of Italy, as the luxury liner Costa Concordia with 3,400 passengers and around 1,000 crew ran aground and ultimately sank to the ocean floor, a similar potential disaster was averted in the Straits of Gibraltar.

At around 8:00 PM on Friday evening, about 5 miles from the North African enclave of Ceuta, the Millennium Dos high speed ferry suffered a collision with a merchant freighter New Glory, causing a huge hole to be cut in the starboard side of the passenger ship.

Millennium Dos had left Algeciras at 19:00 hours en route to Cueta, carrying out her regular service across the strait, with 174 passengers, 37 vehicles and 4 freight units on board.

The ferry company Acciona issued a statement saying that the safety of the ship was not compromised and that she was able to continue to the harbour under her own power.

Miraculously, only one passenger had to be evacuated, suffering an open fracture of tibia and fibula in his right leg and a cut on his head.

The ship docked and passengers disembarked at around 4 in the morning and a full investigation has now been launched to determine what caused this potentially catastrophic incident.