French authorities have confined more than 1,700 passengers and crew on a cruise ship docked in Bordeaux after a passenger died from a suspected norovirus, officials said.
The Ambassador Cruise Line ship – with a majority of the 1,233 passengers from Ireland or Britain – arrived in the western port of Bordeaux yesterday.
One 90-year-old passenger had died and about 50 people have shown symptoms of norovirus, health officials said.
Norovirus is a form of gastroenteritis, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea and is highly contagious.
The ship, which left the Shetland Islands on 6 May, stopped in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Liverpool in Britain, and Brest in France before reaching Bordeaux, from where it was scheduled to depart for Spain.