(Athens) At least 12 people were missing Friday evening after the fire of an Italian ferry in the Ionian Sea, where a race against time is engaged to overcome the disaster and rescue the missing passengers before nightfall, according to the Greek authorities.
Updated yesterday at 4:02 p.m.
Divers have widened their search area at sea around the burning building, to find any missing off the Greek island of Corfu, said the Greek coast guard.
PHOTO ADONIS SKORDILIS, REUTERS
The Italian Ferry Euroferry Olympiain flames, off the Greek island of Corfu, in the Adriatic Sea.
The fire broke out shortly after 4 a.m. local time (2 a.m. GMT) when the “Euroferry Olympia” of the Italian company Grimaldi was off the islet of Erikoussa, between Greece and the Albania.
Of a total of 290 people registered on board, including 51 Italian and Greek crew members, 278 were rescued and transported to the port of Corfu, according to the report of the Greek coast guard intervened alongside an Italian patrol boat.
Ten of them were hospitalized with breathing problems and minor injuries, according to Greek public television ERT.
But several are still missing.
PHOTO LAZOS MADIKOS, DEBATER.GR. VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
A race against time is engaged to overcome the disaster and rescue the missing passengers before nightfall.
“The operation is continuing to locate twelve missing passengers,” said a statement from the coastguard on Friday evening. Nine are Bulgarian nationals, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed.
A team of specialized Greek rescuers was able to board the burning ship where, according to the Grimaldi company, five missing persons “have been located”.
Two truck drivers – a Turk and a Bulgarian – were evacuated by helicopter from the vehicle hold where they had been trapped and taken to hospital, ERT reported.
Fears of stowaways
Among the survivors is a clandestine migrant, whose presence raises fears that of possible other passengers not counted on the burning ship. Migrants often smuggle aboard ferries linking Greece to Italy.
PHOTO ALBANIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, VIA REUTERS
Albanian coastguards joined efforts to put out the fire aboard the Italian ferry Euroferry Olympia off the Greek island of Corfu in the Adriatic Sea.
The ship made a regular night connection between the Greek port of Igoumenitsa and the Italian port of Brindisi.
On the list of people on board, there are in particular 127 Bulgarians, 64 Italians, 24 Turks and 21 Greeks, according to authorities and media of the countries concerned.
The survivors were transported to hotels in Corfu while the Grimaldi company should send a ferry to allow those who wish to reach Italy, according to ERT.
“The ship is burning from end to end,” said a Greek rescuer, Yiorgos Glikofridis. “There is a lot of smoke and the visibility is poor,” he said on ERT.
The Greek emergency services estimate that it will take several hours to bring the disaster under control.
PHOTO STAMATIS KATAPODIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Passengers from theEuroferry Olympia arriving at the port of Corfu.
The fire could have started from a truck parked in the holds reserved for vehicles, the captain of the ferry told the crew of Italian rescuers, according to the Ansa press agency.
153 commercial vehicles and 32 cars boarded the ferry, according to the company.
“There was no fuel spillage at sea and the stability of the ship does not appear to be compromised,” Grimaldi added in a statement.
“Panic” on board
“The flames were gigantic, there was panic on board,” passengers testified to Italian rescuers.
“The captain of the ship, when he discovered the fire, went around the cabins and assembled the passengers on one deck, then he ordered the abandonment of the ship. The evacuation was not a walk in the park,” the commander of the Italian rescue patrol boat, Felice Lodovico Simone Cicchetti, told Ansa.
HELLENIC COAST GUARD PHOTO VIA REUTERS
A team of specialized Greek rescuers was able to board the burning ship where, according to the Grimaldi company, five missing persons “have been located”.
The fire broke out two hours after the departure of the ferry, built in 1995, which had sailed around 2 a.m. (23:00 GMT).
“We were sleeping when we were alerted to the fire,” said a passenger. “We got dressed in a second and went up on deck where we were given life jackets,” continued this truck driver joined by ERT.
“In just 15 minutes, the fire reached the bridge,” said another passenger on the Greek channel Skai. But “the crew saved us”, he said again, welcoming a “simply perfect” reaction on board.
Maritime ferry connections between the Greek ports of Igoumenitsa (north-west) and Patras (south-west) are frequent with the Italian ports in the Adriatic Sea, Brindisi or Ancona.
The previous fire on a ferry in this part of the Mediterranean took place in December 2014 on the Norman Atlantic, an Italian ship, which was en route from Patras to Ancona. It had killed 13 people, including nine passengers.