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 Julian Isherwood reports for BBC News"The wreck has been located at a depth of 99 metres"  real 28k |
Unanswered questions about ferry disaster
 A young boy in Haugesund lights torch boxes in memory of the dead |
A commission of inquiry is being set up in Norway to determine why an ultra-modern ferry with more than 80 people on board ran aground and sank on Friday night.
The high-speed catamaran Sleipner, which had only been in service since August, was on a routine journey from Stavanger to Bergen when it hit rocks in an area that is well charted.
There has so far been no explanation as to why it went off course.
 Soelvi Litleskare (right) was in the sea for an hour before being rescued |
The Norwegian authorities have called off their search for survivors of the disaster, saying there is no longer any hope of finding anyone alive.
Eleven bodies had been recovered and nine people were missing, presumed dead when the operation was abandoned nearly 24 hours after the disaster.
"The rescue leaders now see no hope for finding more survivors. It is cold. There are large waves," said a spokeswoman at the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Center at Sola.
 There was panic and shoving out on the overcrowded sun deck  |
| Ann Kristine Dalseg |
"We know there was a crew of nine on board, but we cannot be certain there were 80 passengers.
" We got that number from the boat when it went aground. With no passenger lists, there could be a few more or a few less... people got on and off at stops along the way."
Police said they would continue a scaled-down operation through Saturday night and on Sunday to try to recover the bodies of the missing.
Massive search
A massive rescue effort had been mounted when the Sleipner sank off Haugesund on Friday night.
 Sleipner was an ultra-modern craft |
Nearly 200 volunteers also searched a 30-km (22-mile) stretch of rocky coastline, recovering debris and baggage.
The wreck of the catamaran has still not been located. Police said the bodies of some of the missing might be trapped inside.
A total of 69 people were rescued, and many of the survivors have given harrowing accounts of panic and chaos as the boat began to sink.
In the final minutes, passengers are said to have scrambled on deck to try to keep above water and some are reported to have been drawn down with the ferry.
According to some survivors, none of the Sleipner's own life-rafts were used and all of those picked up had to jump into the stormy seas.
Many were suffering from hypothermia after only a few minutes in the water.
'Ice-cold water'
Ann Kristine Dalseg, 28, told the Dagbladet newspaper: "It all happened in two or three minutes.
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Passenger Haavard Roessland told Norwegian television that he watched from the cold water as the ship's stern tilted into the air and then slid under the waves.
"It was like the film Titanic," he said. "I saw the Titanic before me."
Some survivors told of groups of people clinging to each other in cold water, fighting their way to life-rafts and finally being lifted into rescue boats.
The accident is the worst since 1990, when 158 people died when the Scandinavian Star caught fire south of Oslo after a suspected arson attack.
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 | 27 Nov 99 | Europe |
| Ferry disaster in pictures |
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| 26 Nov 99 | Europe |
| Norway passenger ferry sinks |
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| 08 Jul 99 | Europe |
| Ferry fire near Gothenburg |
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| 12 Feb 99 | Europe |
| Estonia's victims to rest at sea |
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| Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap (in Norwegian) |
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