Five crew members have been killed during a safety drill on a Thomson cruise ship which was docked in the Canary Islands.

The incident took place on the Thomson Majesty while the cruise ship was docked in Santa Cruz on La Palma.

Thomson released a statement which said: “Our thoughts are with the families of those involved.”

“We are working closely with the ship owners and managers, Louis Cruises, to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected by the incident.

“We are also working closely with all relevant authorities and will be co-operating fully with their investigations.”

Around 2,000 passengers are thought to have been on board the ship at the time.

Those killed were three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanaian, meanwhile two Greek nationals were seriously injured.

The cause of the incident is not yet known.