Two passengers were killed and six injured when a giant wave crashed into a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, smashing its glass windshields. The Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty was sailing from Barcelona to Genoa with 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members on board.

The two victims were identified as a German and an Italian man.

The ship asked for permission to dock in Barcelona and arrived at the Spanish port shortly after 9 p.m. (2200 GMT), the Spanish news agency Europa Press said.
The bodies and the injured were taken to a hospital in the city, the agency said.

No further details on the dead or the injured were immediately available. According to Spanish media, the injured included a 62-year-old woman who broke both of her legs.
Louis Cruise Lines spokesman Michael Maratheftis said the ship was hit by three “abnormally high” waves up to 26 feet high that broke glass windshields in the forward section. There had been winds of over 100km per hour in the area.

All television news crews were asked to leave the port late Wednesday, and it did not appear that passengers were being allowed to leave the ship.

There are conflicting reports as to where the accident took place. Greek coast guard report that it occurred near the French port of Marseille, but the French newspaper Le Figaro and Spanish news reports said the accident happened off Capo de Begur, off the coast of Spain about 80 miles northeast of Barcelona.

Europa Press said the ship had set sail from the southeastern Spanish Mediterranean port of Cartagena earlier Wednesday, intending to stop in Barcelona but decided to continue on its journey to Genoa because of bad weather near Barcelona.