The Greek Coast Guard said on Friday this 11 people were missing and two remained trapped in a ferry on fire at night on the Ionian Sea.
Divers were brought in to broaden the search for missing, the Greek Coast Guard said, after 278 people had been rescued and taken to the island of Corfu after the fire on the Euroferry Olympia en route from Greece to Italy.
the fire was still burning on Friday afternoon hours after that first exploded off the island of Ereikousa between Greece and Albania. Officials said the cause just stay unknown.
Among the survivors, 10 were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties and minor injuries, public said ERT television.
But several were still missing for on Friday afternoon.
“An operation to locate 11 missing passengers is in progress”, said the Greek coast guard in A declaration.
A Bulgarian and a Turk truck driver trapped on board and tried to do their way on the bridge, a freight company in says Bulgaria.
According to ferry owners Grimaldi Lines, the ship was officially carrying 239 passengers and 51 crew along with 153 trucks and trailers and 32 passengers. vehicles.
A migrant stowaway was rescued in in addition to those on List boats raising fears that more undocumented passengers could be on board.
Grimaldi Lines indicated that it had been alerted at 04:12 (02:12 GMT) of the fire on the ship, which was heading to Italy from the Greek port city of Igoumenitsa in face from Corfu.
Television footage showed the shrouded ship in flames, which sent plumes of black smoke in the sky.
“Burning End to End”
“The ship is burning from end to end,” Corfu rescuer Yiorgos Glikofridis told ERT on Friday afternoon from a ship near the ferry.
“There is a huge amount of smoke and visibility are poor. We see no movement on the bridge, all flames,” he said.
Three tugs equipped with fire the pipes were engaged in put out the fire and a ferry has been dispatched with of them fire engines on boardindicated the coast guard.
A spokesman for the Greek Coast Guard told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that it would take several hours to put the fire out.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said there were 127 of its nationals on the passenger listincluding 37 truck drivers.
Another 24 are from Turkey, the country’s NTV channel said. ERT said there were 21 Greeks among the passengers.
No fuel spillage was detected at sea and the vessel’s stability did not appear to be compromised, the company said.
“Tugs have been hired and are heading to Euroferry Olympia for give quick support and manage the emergency,” he said.
“We heard that the fire started in the hold, but it is not certain”, a Greek who identified himself as a passenger told Skai TV.
“This took just 15 minutes for the fire to reach the deck,” he said, adding that the response from the mostly Italian crew had been “just perfect.”
“They were very organized. The crew saved us,” he said.
Passengers rescued by an Italian law enforcement patrol boat also rushed to the scene later said Italian news Ansa news agency that the flames were “gigantic” and that panic had ensued.
“The evacuation was not easy,” the patrol boat commander told Ansa.
Nikos Bardis, a local fisherman, previously told ERT that several fishing boats were also circling the ship in distress, watching for people in the water.
“We hear explosions, it must be freight trucks blowing up,” he said.
There is heavy maritime traffic between the ports of Western Greece of Igoumenitsa and Patras and the Italian ports of Brindisi and Ancona.
the last on board fire in the Adriatic happened in December 2014 on the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic. Thirteen people deceased in the fire.
