Cruise ship with 206 onboard runs aground in Greenland

A luxury cruise ship with 206 passengers on board has run aground in the remote northeastern Greenland waiting for a rescue ship to arrive not before Friday.

The 104-metre-long Ocean Explorer got stuck on Monday in Alpefjord, roughly 1,400km northeast of Greenland's capital Nuuk, according to the Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC).

"A cruise ship in trouble in the national park is obviously a worry. The nearest help is far away, our units are far away, and the weather can be very unfavourable," said commander Brian Jensen, the JAC head of operations.

The vessel's captain reportedly waited for the high tide at midnight to help the ship float but the mixture of sediment, sand and silt left by a nearby glacier made it difficult to break.

The ship waited for the next high tide but that attempt was rendered unsuccessful on Tuesday. There were no reports of injuries, JAC said.

‘It’s very isolated. We’re in the national park, northeastern Greenland, there’s no population," Mr Jensen said, adding: "We do not see any immediate danger to human life or the environment, which is reassuring."

The JAC said its nearest unit was an inspection vessel some 1,200 nautical miles away at the time of the incident, meaning it could reach the grounded ship by Friday morning at the earliest.

The Arctic command said it had asked a cruise ship located nearer to the Ocean Explorer to stay in the area so that it would be able to assist in case the situation changes.

A military flight over the ship has found the hull intact, Bloomberg reported.

There is a requirement for a third-party vessel commissioned by the operator Aurora Expeditions as most of the passengers were Australians. “All passengers, the expedition team and crew onboard are safe and well,” the ship’s Sydney-based operator said in a statement.

Completed in 2021, the Ocean Explorer can accommodate up to 134 passengers and offers trips to "some of the most wild and remote destinations on the planet", Aurora Expeditions said on its website.