In the southwestern French port of Bordeaux, local authorities have ordered more than 1,700 people including passengers and crew to remain on board a British cruise ship Wednesday, following the death of an elderly passenger and a reported outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, regional health officials confirmed. Despite early concerns that the incident could be connected to a separate hantavirus outbreak linked to another cruise vessel, officials have moved quickly to dismiss that connection.
The vessel in question is the Ambition, operated by UK-based Ambassador Cruise Line, which docked in Bordeaux Tuesday morning. Of the ship’s 1,233 passengers, the vast majority hold British or Irish citizenship, while the 514-person crew is made up almost entirely of Indian nationals. Dozens of people on board have reported symptoms of stomach illness, with officials updating that figure to roughly 50 symptomatic people as of Wednesday.
The 90-year-old passenger who passed away had died before the ship docked in Brest, a port in France’s northwestern Brittany region, where symptoms reached their peak among passengers and crew on Monday. The Ambition began its current voyage on May 6, departing from the Shetland Islands off the northern coast of Scotland, and made stops in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Liverpool, England before reaching its scheduled stop in Bordeaux, where it was meant to depart for Spain next.
Health officials clarified that the outbreak has no connection to the recent hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which departed from Argentina and has been linked to three passenger deaths. Initial laboratory testing has already ruled out norovirus – a highly contagious strain of viral gastroenteritis that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea – as the cause of the illness. Secondary testing is still ongoing, and officials have confirmed that food poisoning remains a plausible cause that has not been eliminated from the investigation.
An AFP reporter on the ground in Bordeaux Wednesday reported no visible enhanced security measures around the docked vessel. Passengers were observed moving freely on deck, with many capturing photos of the city’s waterfront skyline, with no signs of immediate public safety cordons in place around the port.