Latvia’s coastguard evacuated a stranded cruise ship of more than 650 people after tug boats failed to pull the luxury liner off an underwater sand bank in the Baltic Sea.
In a five-hour operation, 651 passengers - mostly elderly Germans - and 11 crew members were transferred from the 660ft-long Mona Lisa on to two naval ships, coastguard officials said.
They were taken about 22 miles to Ventspils, a port city in north-western Latvia, for onward travel to the capital, Riga.