Video: Cruise Ship Collides With Another Vessel After High Winds Rip Moorings

A cruise ship collided with another vessel on Monday in the port of La Spezia, Italy, after strong winds and stormy weather conditions reportedly broke its mooring lines.

A video posted to Facebook this week showed the Celebrity Cruises-owned ship—known as the Celebrity Constellation—being left adrift and, as a result of the harsh conditions including gale force winds, slowly moving in the direction of another huge boat called the Costa Magica.

Three tugboats came to their rescue. Crucero Fun, the Facebook account which posted the footage, said storms are expected to continue "in the port area and its surroundings."

In a short statement released on Monday via social media, Crucero Fun wrote: "Many boats are changing their routes to ports where they can stop without complications. Five boats that had to leave yesterday from the port of Venice, are still moored, waiting for the strong winds to pass and the weather is adequate to start their itineraries. Hopefully everything will improve soon!"

"Organized chaos"

One customer who said she was onboard the Celebrity Constellation—identified as Debbie Laughton—said she left the cruise ship at 2 a.m. this morning, calling it "organized chaos."

Laughton, who posted an image of customers departing the ship, tweeted earlier today: "We're now on a bus that will hopefully depart for Rome airport soon! It's a 5 1/2 hour journey....we've been up since 6 a.m. yesterday for our tour to Florence! Odd way to end a cruise, for sure!"

In some earlier Twitter updates, Laughton wrote that other passengers had said the port of Rome that the cruise ship was destined for had potentially been closed down due to the weather.

She wrote: "The torrential storms are back to back! The update now is...they are going to bus the passengers starting NOW to Rome! Little by little! They've given us back our luggage and expect a mass exodus off the ship over the next two hours! Five hours to Rome from there."

There have been no injuries reported as a result of the incident. As noted by Cruise Fever, it was not immediately clear if either ship had been damaged.

A second person who said that she had friends on the Celebrity Constellation tweeted on Monday that the "back of Connie" had hit "the front of Costa Magica around the 7th deck."