Irish among rescued ice cruisers

The Explorer lay on its side in the frozen seas for several hours

Four Irish people are among the passengers and crew rescued from a cruise ship that sank in the Antarctic Ocean.

The 154 tourists and crew from the M/S Explorer spent the night at Chilean and Uruguayan military bases on King George Island in Antarctica.

The Chilean air force is expected to fly them to the mainland when weather improves.

The ship's operator Gap Adventures said those rescued were in "good spirits".

The ship sank after hitting an iceberg during a "Spirit of Shackleton" cruise - costing from around $8,000 (£3,900) per cabin - through the Drake Passage.

The ship ran into trouble approximately 120km (75 miles) north of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The company said pumps had been used in an effort to stop the ship sinking, but in the meantime the captain gave the order to abandon ship, and passengers were transferred to lifeboats.

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After several hours bobbing on the sea amid floating sheets of ice, they were plucked to safety by the Norwegian cruise ship, the Nordnorge.

Coastguards said although the weather conditions were good for this time of year, the average temperature was still -5C.

Argentine guide Andrea Salas, who was also on the ship, told Argentina's Radio Continental she was in the bar having a drink "when two passengers from the cabins down below came in wet, shouting: 'There's water, there's water!'

"We ran out to see what was happening - and there was this hole in the cabins down below. The cabins were already quite flooded."

She said: "There were people suffering from hypothermia and it felt like an eternity until the boats came to the rescue."