Injured Arctic cruise passengers win fight for reparations

Tourists injured when their Arctic cruise ship was hit by a huge wave caused by a collapsing glacier have won a key legal victory in their battle for compensation, their lawyers said.

A number of passengers aboard the vessel Aleksey Maryshev had to be taken to hospital after the incident off Spitsbergen in Norway in August 2007.

Yesterday, law company Irwin Mitchell, which represents 12 of the 16 injured passengers, said the UK travel company involved, Discover the World, had accepted responsibility for the suffering caused.

Irwin Mitchell said it now hoped to work closely with the company to get "proper" compensation for those hurt.

All 50 passengers on board were British. The vessel was around 70 metres from the Hornbreen Glacier when a very large quantity of ice fell into the water.

This led to a large wave hitting the ship which rolled heavily, with water and lumps of ice coming on to the deck.

Among the Britons injured was Councillor Julian Benington, 69, from Orpington in Kent, who serves on Bromley council, who was with his wife Valerie who was slightly injured.