Newly-boarded passengers on a Carnival vessel were given a scare when a routine safety drill turned into a mass evacuation caused by a bomb threat.
All passengers and crew of the 70,370-gt Sensation (built 1993) were shuffled off the ship in Port Canaveral, Florida, after the US Coast Guard (USCG) received an anonymous phone call saying there was a bomb onboard.
Authorities spent two hours conducting a thorough search of the Bahamas-flagged vessel on Thursday afternoon and, finding nothing of concern, determined the call had been a hoax.
All passengers were allowed back on the vessel which sailed just after 20:00 for a four-day cruise around the Bahamas.
It is not known how many people were onboard the vessel which can carry 2,052 passengers and 920 crew.