Legal hopes or tourists in glacier ship terror

A number of passengers aboard the vessel Aleksey Maryshev had to be taken to hospital after the incident off Spitsbergen in Norway in August 2007.

Law company Irwin Mitchell, which represents 12 of the 16 injured passengers, said the UK travel company involved, Discover the World, had accepted responsibility.

Irwin Mitchell said it now hoped to work closely with the company to get "proper" compensation for those hurt.

All 50 passengers on board were British. The vessel was around 70 metres from the Hornbreen Glacier when ice fell into the water.

This led to a large wave hitting the ship which rolled heavily, with water and lumps of ice coming on to the deck.

Among the Britons injured was Councillor Julian Benington, 69, from Orpington in Kent, who serves on Bromley council, who was with his wife Valerie.

He told reporters earlier this month: "A huge section of the 100ft high glacier came down. If it had come down over the boat, God knows what would have happened. As it was, it fell vertically in the water.

"As it did so, this huge wave came up and swamped the boat with water and ice lumps, some of which were pretty big. The boat then keeled over dramatically. I hung on to a railing and then all hell let loose. I am hanging on and there is ice and water raining down on everybody."

Mr Benington went on: "My wife was being washed down past me. Fortunately I managed to grab her and I am holding on to her, and bear in mind the boat is probably tilting at 45 degrees and probably more than that."

The couple escaped with cuts and bruises but others suffered broken limbs. He added: "We just should not have been that close to a glacier."