VICTORIA (Reuters) - The cruise liner Costa Allegra, which started drifting in the Indian Ocean after an engine room fire, was being towed on Tuesday to a nearby island, the Seychelles tourism authority said.
The liner, with more than 1,000 people on board, is owned by the same company as the Costa Concordia, on which at least 25 people died when it ran aground off Italy last month.
"It is now being towed to Desroches Island where there is a luxury resort and passengers can at least take a shower before they are flown to Mahe," Seychelles Tourism Authority Chief Executive Alain St Ange said.
Desroches Island is about 230 km (144 miles) southwest of Mahe, the main island in the Seychelles archipelago.
He said, however, there may not be enough accommodation or flights out of Seychelles, an archipelago with a population of just over 80,000.
"We are in talks with the ship's agent regarding what to do next but we are making plans to fly them here, although we do not have enough hotel accommodation for all the passengers since we already have heavy bookings because of an international carnival due to start on Friday," he said.
St Ange said the next move would be to fly Costa Allegra's 636 passengers and 413 crew out of the country, but he feared there may not be enough seats on the four flights scheduled to leave the country on Tuesday.
The tourism board head said arrangements would be made to tow the cruise liner to Mahe "but it will take a day or two to reach here."
(Reporting by George Thande; editing by David Clarke and Philippa Fletcher)
