Former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko has said his boat trip off Spain with family and friends was cut short after a fire broke out on board.

The 43-year-old Ukrainian said in a tweet that the group was evacuated from the motor yacht in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday night.

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service confirmed it responded to an emergency call, although a spokeswoman declined to provide the identities of those involved because of privacy rules.

She told the Associated Press the yacht carrying nine people reported a fire in its engine room and was drifting 10 miles south west of Port Adriano, on the island of Majorca. Nobody was hurt.