More than 100 penguin-loving tourists are trapped by ice off Antarctica aboard a Russian ice-breaker cruise ship.

The Kapitan Khlebnikov is in a bay near Snow Hill island, off the northeastern end of the Antarctic Peninsula, and cannot leave as the bay is sealed off with ice, the Russian Transportation Ministry said.

” When the wind changes to a favourable direction, the ice-breaker will head into clear water and on to the port of Ushuaia,” at the extreme southern end of Argentina, the ministry predicted.

There were 105 passengers aboard the vessel and the total delay in the ship’s scheduled trip could be around two days, it added.