A York man told today of his amazing escape with fellow passengers and crew after disaster struck a luxury cruise liner in tropical waters.

David Lee was among more than 1,100 people who scrambled overboard when the eight-deck, 30,00-ton Sun Vista caught fire and sank off the west coast of Malaysia early today.

"We were very, very lucky," said Mr Lee, a lifelong fan of cruises. "Conditions were ideal for the worst.

"All the power went out. The emergency lights didn't come on. There was soot on us. Even in the daytime, we had to use torch lights to see our way around."

Some 632 crew members and 472 passengers - many Britons - clambered into lifeboats after an electrical fire broke out in the engine room, said ship owners Sun Cruises.

A spokeswoman for the Australia-based company, told PA News: "There were many Britons on board, I am not sure of the figure, but everyone was taken to safety.

"There was a fire in the main switchboard in the engine room at 2.30pm local time."

The passengers and crew members of 20 nationalities on the Sun Vista were then rescued by passing ferries and naval vessels.

Today they were being cared for at the Shangri-La hotel in Penang, said the spokeswoman in Perth.

Briton Thomas Bonnard, 62, of Guisborough, Cleveland, on the cruise with his wife Barbara, said: "What actually happened is lack of information because the captain did not tell us about the fire. All the crew members looked panicky."

Indian businessman Ram Yalamanchi, 32, said he would never forget the screams of his fellow passengers.

"It was a true nightmare, I thought we all were going to die," Mr Yalamanchi said.

"We were on one of the last lifeboats, we watched her just slip under the water," he said. "People were screaming, praying, it was awful, the most terrifying experience of my life."

"It was the awful silence that I remember when the engines didn't work," said Mary Mailer, 50, from the Midlands, who was picked up by a passing ship and dropped off at the Shangri-la hotel.

"The first thing that flashed across my mind was: 'Oh God, is this the Titanic?"' she said. Her husband, David, nodded in agreement.

Rescued passengers in Penang spoke of panic and chaos, of smoke starting to flow through the air-conditioning vents into the cabins. Others spoke of how they sang the theme song from the film Titanic.

"We were singing the Celine Dion song, My Heart Will Go On, trying to keep everyone's spirits up," said Australian passenger Greg Haywood, 30.

Steve Douglas, a spokesman for Sun Cruises, said: "All passengers and crew have been saved and were at no point in any immediate danger."

Ten passengers were sent to Penang Hospital for treatment. A hospital spokesman said the conditions were not yet known. The Bernama news agency reported that the ship's captain was taken to a local police station to lodge a report on the incident.

Government officials said they were liaising with British officials in Kuala Lumpur to establish the safety of any Britons on board.

The 700ft-long Sun Vista could hold more than 1,600 passengers and crew in its 547 cabins. It had eight decks, five whirlpool baths, a swimming pool, beauty salon, bars and casinos.

The ship's journey originated in Singapore, stopped to pick up more passengers in the Malaysian city of Malacca and then sailed on to the resort island of Phuket off the southern coast of Thailand.

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