Over 200 evacuated following chemical leak on Swedish ferry

A chemical leak had forced the evacuation of more than 200 people from a passenger vessel in the Port of Trelleborg in Sweden on Friday, August 16.

The first evidence of the incident was detected shortly after 08:00 local time when a crewmember conducting a routine inspection of the vehicle cargo on the Ro-Pax ferry Peter Pan noted an initially unidentified substance leaking from one of the tank trucks embarked on the vessel.

The substance was soon after confirmed to be iron chloride, which is highly corrosive.

The vessel’s 271 passengers were then evacuated as the crew and responding firefighters and chemical containment teams from Trelleborg and nearby cities worked to prevent the leaking substance from spreading and causing further harm.

The incident was declared resolved within hours, allowing Peter Pan to depart Trelleborg at 15:15 for its regular scheduled service to the German port of Travemünde.

No injuries were reported. However, the total volume of iron chloride that had leaked on the vessel has not yet been determined.