The ferry struck the bottom of the sea just off the coast of Finland and ran itself aground to avoid sinking, say Finnish authorities.
ADVERTISEMENTA Baltic Sea passenger ferry with nearly 300 people aboard has run aground in the Åland Islands archipelago between Finland and Sweden on Sunday, Finnish authorities said.
Rescue officials were preparing to evacuate the vessel of passengers and crew, none of whom suffered any injuries, according to reports.
The Finnish coastguard tweeted that the M/S Amorella operated by ferry company Viking Line between the Finnish western port city of Turku and Swedish capital Stockholm is currently “stuck on the ground” south of the port of Långnäs in the Åland Islands.
In a tweet, the local coastguard division posted: "Amorella made ground contact south of Långnäs. The ship pushed itself to the shore of the island to stabilise the situation. Several units were alerted and several ships were on-site in preparation for the evacuation. At present, the situation is stable and human lives are not in immediate danger."
Video footage taken on board the ferry and posted on the coastguard's Twitter account showed small boats undertaking the evacuation of those on board.
“There are no reported human casualties,” Viking Line said in a short statement adding that the situation with the vessel was “stable." It added that the vessel has around 200 passengers and a crew of 80 aboard.
The coastguard was alerted of the incident just before 1 pm Finnish time. Authorities are now investigating why the ferry ran aground.
The Åland Islands, an autonomous Finnish territory, are midway between the two port cities and M/S Amorella was set to make a scheduled stop there en route to Stockholm.