Cruise ship lifeboat accident kills five

Five people have been killed and three were injured after a lifeboat fell into the sea off a cruise ship that was tied up at the port of Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands.

Citing the islands’ Emergency and Security Coordination Centre, a Spanish government statement said rescue personnel were called to the dockside after “a lifeboat with occupants had fallen overboard from a cruise ship docked at the pier of Santa Cruz port in La Palma”.

The nationality or sex of those who died was not known, the statement said, adding that the injured were all men. Two were aged 30 and another, a Greek national, was 32.

National broadcaster RTVE said the cruise ship was British-registered.

Thomson Cruises said in a statement it is “aware of an incident involving the ship’s crew on board Thomson Majesty, in La Palma, Canary Islands this afternoon”.

The UK firm added: “We are working closely with the ship owners and managers, Louis Cruises, to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected by the incident.”

Spanish national broadcaster RTVE said an emergency training drill was taking place at the time of the accident.

A reporter at the dockside said all of those in the lifeboat at the time of the accident were crew members.

Television images showed a small, white two-hulled lifeboat capsized beside the ship.

It was not immediately clear if there were any other people in the lifeboat when it crashed into the sea, or whether the Thomson Majesty ship had any passengers on it.