A general view shows the burning Lithuanian passenger and car ferry Lisco Gloria which was en route from the northern city of Kiel to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda when an explosion occurred in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Fehmarn Oct 9, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

BERLIN - More than 200 passengers and crew were evacuated after a Lithuanian-flagged ferry caught fire near the German island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea, German authorities said on Saturday.

Some 28 people were injured and 23 were still in hospital, a police spokesman said. All the injuries were light and most were from smoke inhalation, he said.

The passenger and car ferry Lisco Gloria was en route from the northern city of Kiel to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda when an explosion occurred on the upper deck around midnight, said the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies based in Cuxhaven.

A technical defect in one of the trucks on the ferry may have started the fire, the police spokesman said.

"There are currently no indications at all that this could have been a terror attack," the maritime command spokesman said. "Of course the police will investigate this further, but it seems to have been an accident."

The ferry Deutschland and a police vessel had been nearby at the time of the incident and came to the rescue of passengers either swimming in the water or clinging to life rafts.