Cruise ship passengers admitted to hospital 'with Legionnaires' symptoms'

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The seven British passengers - five women and two men aged in their 70s and 80s - are awaiting the results of tests to confirm the illness.

The cruise ship is heading back to Dover for a "deep-cleansing regime". Spokeswoman Wendy Hooper-Greenhill said: "If there is something lurking there, that will certainly knock it on the head," she said.

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The Black Watch is heading back to Dover two days early for a 'deep-cleansing regime' after seven passengers were taken ill

More than 750 passengers had booked for the 17-day cruise which had already called at St Petersburg, Estonia and, Finland

The ship's pools and Jacuzzi have been closed "as a precaution" on the advice of the Swedish health authorities.

It was returning to Britain two days early purely as a "precautionary measure", Ms Hooper-Greenhill added.

A different liner run by the same company, called the Black Prince, was hit by a highly contagious vomiting virus twice last year.

The ship had left Edinburgh and was on a seven-day cruise to Norway in June when 116 passengers were diagnosed with the Norovirus bug and confined to their cabins.

Less than a month later, more than 100 passengers fell ill with the winter vomiting bug on a trip to Greenland and Iceland.

Legionnaires' disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia which usually affects middle-aged or elderly people. It can be treated with antibiotics.