A cruise ship with 100 UK passengers on board has reached land after drifting in seas south of the Philippines following a fire in one of its engine rooms.

The fire is the latest in a series of problems to hit cruise liners in recent months

Luxury liner Azamara Quest, registered in Malta, reached the port of Sandakan, Sabah in Malaysia yesterday after repairs.

No passengers were injured in the blaze on Friday but five crew members on board the ship suffered the effects of smoke inhalation. The ship informed coastguards in the Philippines yesterday that its power and propulsion had been restored and that it was moving towards Sandakan.

Azamara Club Cruises, the owners of the ship, said company president Larry Pimentel would meet the passengers and crew in Sandakan.

The fire was contained in the engine room and was quickly put out, Azamara, which is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, said in an earlier statement. The captain of the ship mustered all passengers to the assembly stations as a precaution.

The damage caused by the fire has meant that the remainder of the cruise will be cancelled. The scheduled 17-night cruise had begun in Hong Kong on Monday and was due to finish in Singapore on April 12.

The fire is the latest in a series of problems to hit cruise liners in recent months.

In January, 25 people died, with seven more people missing and presumed dead, after the Costa Concordia liner ran into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Six weeks later another Costa cruise ship, the Costa Allegra, was left adrift off the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean after fire broke out on board.