1,000 to be rescued from stranded cruise ship

RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- A stranded cruise ship off Latvia with nearly 1,000 people on board will be evacuated Monday, the country's coast guard said.
The Mona Lisa ran aground on a sandbank off the coast of Latvia.

The Mona Lisa's captain had agreed to evacuate the ship after unsuccessful efforts to free it from a sand bank off Latvia's coast, coast guard officer Ruslans Kulesovs said.

The coast guard will evacuate passengers and crew onto two naval ships, which will then sail to Ventspils, a port city in northwestern Latvia, Kulesovs said.
He could not say how long the evacuation would take, nor could he specify how many crew would remain on board the Bahamas-registered vessel.

Mona Lisa was on its way from Kiel, Germany, to Riga with 984 people on board when it ran aground early Sunday on a sand bank about 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the Latvian coast, officials said. The cause of the accident has not been determined.

Coast guard officials said the ship was not damaged and the passengers, mostly Germans, were safe and not at risk.
Once in Ventspils, the passengers will be shuttled to Riga, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) to the east.
The Mona Lisa is a luxury cruise liner that went into service in 1966.

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