At least five people died after a car ferry caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Greek and Italian officials said yesterday, as survivors described a terrifying ordeal that could easily have been much more deadly.
Four bodies were recovered from the waters around the stricken Norman Atlantic yesterday, a day after the body of a 62-year-old Greek man was pulled from the sea.
A 24-hour evacuation operation that proved to be extremely difficult was concluded shortly after midday, with the Italian navy saying only a skeleton crew of nine men had been left on board to prepare for the boat being towed to port.
Photo: AFP
Wrapped in blankets and sporting bandages, 49 of the 478 passengers and crew who were on board the ferry when it caught fire shortly after dawn on Sunday disembarked from merchant ship Spirit of Pireus at the Italian port of Bari.
They and other evacuees told of how the fire had triggered panic that the crew appeared ill-prepared to deal with.
One of the first passengers off the merchant vessel in Bari told reporters he had thought he was going to die as parts of the boat became engulfed by thick smoke as the ferry traveled from Greece from Italy.
“We did not know what to do. The staff had no idea how to get people off the boat,” he said. “The lifeboats did not work, there was only one of them in the water and none of the crew were there to help people.”
Some of the rescued displayed mild symptoms of hypothermia, but doctors said they were mainly dealing with shock and trauma.
The evacuation was completed nearly 36 hours after a fire broke out on the car deck and left the huge vessel drifting dangerously in high seas off the coast of Albania.
With a second navy boat at the scene able to provide a landing deck for helicopters, the pace of the evacuation accelerated significantly yesterday. Once it was complete, questions began to be asked about how the fire started and why it was not contained.
Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe announced a criminal investigation that will seek to establish if negligence contributed to the disaster.
The ferry’s owner, Italian Carlo Visentini, said he would cooperate.
He said that the vessel, which was leased to Greek operator ANEK ferries, had passed a technical inspection which included its firedoors on Dec. 19.
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday released the first video documenting the submerged sea trials of Taiwan’s indigenous defense submarine prototype, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, showing underwater navigation and the launch of countermeasures. The footage shows the vessel’s first dive, steering and control system tests, and the raising and lowering of the periscope and antenna masts. It offered a rare look at the progress in the submarine’s sea acceptance tests. The Hai Kun carried out its first shallow-water diving trial late last month and has since completed four submerged tests, CSBC said. The newly released video compiles images recorded from Jan. 29 to
DETERRENCE EFFORTS: Washington and partners hope demonstrations of force would convince Beijing that military action against Taiwan would carry high costs The US is considering using HMAS Stirling in Western Australia as a forward base to strengthen its naval posture in a potential conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, Washington plans to deploy up to four nuclear-powered submarines at Stirling starting in 2027, providing a base near potential hot spots such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. The move also aims to enhance military integration with Pacific allies under the Australia-UK-US trilateral security partnership, the report said. Currently, US submarines operate from Guam, but the island could
RESTRAINTS: Should China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, China would be excluded from major financial institutions, the bill says The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the PROTECT Taiwan Act, which states that Washington would exclude China from participating in major global financial organizations if its actions directly threaten Taiwan’s security. The bill, proposed by Republican Representative Frank Lucas, passed with 395 votes in favor and two against. It stipulates that if China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, the US would, “to the maximum extent practicable,” exclude Beijing from international financial institutions, including the G20, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board. The bill makes it clear that China must be prepared
Taiwanese trade negotiators told Washington that Taipei would not relocate 40 percent of its semiconductor production to the US, and that its most advanced technologies would remain in the nation, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said on Sunday. “I told the US side very clearly — that’s impossible,” Cheng, who led the negotiation team, said in an interview that aired on Sunday night on Chinese Television System. Cheng was referring to remarks last month by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, in which he said his goal was to bring 40 percent of Taiwan’s chip supply chain to the US Taiwan’s almost
RSS