Ferries trapped on the Baltic sea

Nearly 1,100 people were trapped on Thursday on two passenger ferries and two cargo ships which became stuck in ice in the Baltic Sea off Sweden's east coast, officials said.
Ice breakers in the area were trying to free the ships, but gale-force winds were hampering the effort, the Swedish Maritime Administration said.
Two smaller ice breakers got also stuck in the area on Thursday.
No one was hurt and there were no immediate plans to get people off the ships, but helicopters and military hovercraft were on standby in case evacuations become necessary, officials said.
The Maritime Administration said one of the ships was the Amorella, a passenger ferry with 943 people on board.
It belongs to Viking Line, which operates Baltic Sea cruises between Sweden and Finland.
The other ships were the smaller Via Mare ferry carrying 66 people, the roll-on-roll-off ferry Sea Wind with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board, officials said.
They were all stuck in the ice at the edge of archipelago which is about 12 miles (20 kilometres) from the mainland.
Two other ferries that got stuck in the ice were able to break free earlier on Thursday.
One of those ships, the Finnfellow, collided lightly with the Amorella when the ice pressed the two ships together, but there was no major damage to either ship, officials said.
The maritime administration said the ships had ignored warnings about the icy conditions.