BBC News with Sue Montgomery

An Italian cruise ship with 1,000 people on board is floating adrift in the dark in an area of the Indian Ocean where Somali pirates have been active. The crew of the ship Costa Allegra issued a distress signalwhen a fire knocked out the ship's generators. David Willey reports.

The 28,000-tonne liner, the Costa Allegra, belongs to the same Italian cruise line as the Costa Concordia, which went agroundoff the coast of Italy last month with a loss of more than 30 lives. Rome coastguards say three merchant ships and two fishing boats in the area have been directed towards the stricken vessel. The authorities in the Seychelles have also dispatched a tugboat, a coastguard ship and a plane to the area where the Allegra is drifting without power.