After Hantavirus Panic France Faces Cruise Ship Health Crisis With 1,700 Quarantined Novovirus

More than 1,000 passengers are being held on a UK-operated cruise ship in France after 49 people fell ill from gastroenteritis.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool that was due to take in ports in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast.

The vessel, an Ambassador Cruise Line ship, docked in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux on Tuesday with 1,187 passengers on board, most of them British or Irish, alongside a crew of 514.

A stomach illness outbreak and the death of a man on board prompted authorities in Bordeaux to place a temporary disembarking ban on the ship.