A CRUISE ship with 708 people on board is under tow to Southampton after an engine fire left it drifting in the English Channel.

The blaze broke out at 3.47am today in the starboard engine of the Calypso as it sailed near Beachy Head, sparking a full-scale emergency response from Coastguard based at Lee-on-the-Solent and fire and rescue services.

Firefighters flew out to the ship, about 20 miles from the coast, and had put out the blaze soon after 6am.

There were no casualties and it was not necessary to evacuate the ship. The cause of the fire, which was tackled by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, is not yet known.

The Cyprus-registered ship is carrying 246 crew and 462 passengers, including one Briton, one American and 454 Dutch. The ship was heading from the port of Tilbury to St Peter Port in Guernsey in the Channel.

Coastguard spokesman Mark Clark said a team of five paramedics and a surveyor was on its way to the ship by helicopter.

Mr Clark said: "There are no reports of injuries but we think that some of the passengers might have had a pretty traumatic time this morning.

"If these people are elderly, and by and large they tend to be of a more advanced age on these cruises, we just want to make sure that we don't have any problems later on."

A spokesman for Louis Cruise Line, the Cyprus-based company that owns the Calypso, said the ship would be towed to Southampton where she could be assessed and passengers helped to return to their homes.

It was hoped that the vessel would arrive in port at about 7am tomorrow, he said.

"This is the most appropriate facility for dealing with the vessel," he said, adding that power had been restored and the passengers were comfortable.

A spokesman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said 18 firefighters were still on board the ship to cool the blaze area.

He added that the ship could arrive in port as early as this evening.

Alan Bishop, a Solent coastguard, said there had been no plans to abandon ship.

He said: "The ship had its lifeboats out but not lowered, and we monitored the situation."

A six-strong fire team for the Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) was helicoptered on to the vessel to investigate the fire.

Launched last month, the MIRG is the UK's first specialised fire and rescue service for incidents at sea and is one of the first of its kind in the world. The fire was its first live job.