SPANISH officials have started to evacuate passengers from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship after the vessel arrived in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The MV Hondius is currently anchored in Granadilla port on the island’s southern coast, near to the popular British holiday zone of Los Cristianos, after a weeks-long journey across the Atlantic. 

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The vessel approached the island with a security perimeter of one nautical mile, and will not be allowed to reach shore.

The Spanish government said on Sunday morning that it had begun evacuating passengers stuck onboard the ship.

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A small group of Spanish passengers, clad in personal protective equipment (PPE), were the first to be taken to land by boat.

They will then be taken from the port to the nearby airport in military buses, before boarding a flight to Madrid, where they will then be taken to hospital and quarantined.

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More evacuation flights are planned over the coming days, including to the UK.

Health minister Monica Garcia said the operation was ‘proceeding normally’’.

All of the 146 passengers onboard the ship, which left southern Argentina on April 1, are currently asymptomatic.

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