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Britons trapped as ship gets stuck in Antarctic ice


More than 100 people, mostly British tourists, have been trapped in the ice off Antarctica aboard a Russian ice-breaker cruise ship but are in no danger, a Russian shipping official said on Monday.

"Today is the fourth day and that's not long," German Kuzin, an official with Far Eastern Shipping Company that operates the vessel, Kapitan Khlebnikov, said in comments broadcast on Russian television.

It was not clear whether Kuzin meant the ship had been stuck in the ice for four days, and no one from the company could immediately be reached to clarify the situation.

"There's nothing to worry about there," Kuzin said. "To put it plainly, the ship got stuck between an island and an ice massif mas·sif  
n.
1. A large mountain mass or compact group of connected mountains forming an independent portion of a range.

2.
."

"The wind will soon change and it will leave," Kuzin said of the ice breaker. Russian media noted that it was springtime in Antarctica and the weather was often capricious.

The Kapitan Khlebnikov was currently at the north-eastern extremity of the Antarctic Peninsula Antarctic Peninsula, glaciated mountain region of W Antarctica, extending c.1,200 mi (1,930 km) N toward South America; in the south, volcanic peaks rise to c.11,000 ft (3,350 m). Most of its NE coast is fringed by the Larsen ice shelf. , next to Snow Hill island Snow Hill Island () is an almost completely snowcapped island, 20 miles (32 km) long and 6 miles (10 km) wide, lying off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from James Ross Island to the northeast by Admiralty Sound. , a landmark in the area, Interfax news agency reported from Vladivostok citing the vessel's operator.

The Maritime Bulletin, a Russian website specialising in shipping affairs, said there were 105 passengers aboard the vessel including members of a BBC television BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927.  crew who were filming in the region.

Scientists aboard the vessel were entertaining the tourists with "additional lectures" to pass time, the website said, citing information it had received from South Africa. It provided no further details.
Copyright 2009 AFP European Edition
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Author:AFP
Publication:AFP European Edition
Date:Nov 16, 2009
Words:243
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