© Provided by The iLocal news reports said that 51 crew members were on board the ship when the fire broke out (Photo: AP/Stamatis Katopodis)
A huge fire broke out on a Greek cruise liner docked off the Greek island of Corfu.
Footage streamed to social media shows flames and plumes of smoke coming from the MSC Lirica on Firday at around 3.30pm local time and was thought to have started in an empty lifeboat.
Local news reports said that 51 crew members were on board the ship when the fire broke out. There were no passengers and no injuries had been reported.
Fire crews appeared to have brought the fire under control by 4.30pm.
Pictures showed one side of the ship had been heavily damaged in the blaze.
A spokesman for the company told Seatrade Cruise News: "A full incident response operation is currently underway with the support of the local emergency services."
And in a statement provided to USA Today Luca Biondolillo, another spokesman for MSC Cruises, said: "A fire on board MSC Lirica, which seems to be originated in an empty lifeboat on deck 6, was reported to the emergency services. in Corfu where the ship is currently in warm layup."
The ship has been docked at the port since 1 March, according to Marine Traffic, and was waiting for the cruise industry to start up again after lockdown.
The vessel can carry up to 2,548 passenger and 752 crew members when it is in full operation, according to the cruise line.
This latest blaze comes as a spate of engine fires aboard cruise ships have been reported - many of which have led to an almost total loss of electrical power.
In 2013 an engine room fire left the Carnival Triumph stranded and without power in the Gulf of Mexico for days.
Two years earlier the Costa Allegra suffered an engine fire.
As well as these incidents, there have been a further five fires on cruise liners since 2009.
Many modern cruise liners are like floating towns. With 10 or 15 floors, they can carry 3,000 to 4,000 passengers.
They need a huge amount of electrical power to maintain everything from lighting to running the lavatories.
There have been questions raised about why such ships have less than adequate backup power in the event of an electrical failure that can be caused by fires.