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FILE - In this file photo dated Finland, Nov. 19, 1994, the bow door of the sunken passenger ferry M/S Estonia is lifted up from the bottom of the sea, off Uto Island, in the Baltic Sea. Estonia and Sweden on Saturday Sept. 28, 2019, are marking the 25th anniversary of the disaster that claimed 852 lives when the passenger ferry en route from Tallinn to Stockholm sank in a heavy storm. (Jaakko Aiikainen/Lehtikuva FILE via AP)

Anniversary of Baltic Sea ferry wreck that killed 852 marked

HELSINKI – The sinking of a Baltic Sea ferry that killed 852 people has been observed 25 years after one of Europe’s deadliest maritime disasters.

The MS Estonia was damaged by high waves and sank while travelling from Estonia’s capital to Stockholm early on Sept. 28, 1994. The wreck had 137 survivors.

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid marked Saturday’s anniversary by laying a wreath at a memorial in Tallinn for the victims. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and Crown Princess Victoria led a similar commemoration in Stockholm.

Along with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, the MS Estonia wreck is among the worst peacetime disasters involving a European ship.

The bodies of most victims remain entombed on the ferry, which rests on the seabed some 80 metres (264 feet) below the sea’s surface.

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