Rescuers picked up the search for 12 missing people at the break of dawn yesterday after an Italian-flagged ferry caught fire on the Ionian Sea the previous day.
Overnight, patrol ships combed the area off Greese’s Corfu island hoping to locate survivors, the Greek coast guard said.
Rescuers brought 278 passengers to Corfu after the blaze on the Euroferry Olympia broke out en route from Greece to Italy.
Photo: AP
Officials have said that the cause of the fire remains unknown.
The coast guard said that all of the missing people are truck drivers, nine from Bulgaria and three from Greece.
Truckers who were rescued from the vessel told Greece’s public broadcaster that some drivers preferred to sleep in their vehicles because the ship cabins were overcrowded.
Grimaldi Lines, the owner of the vessel, late on Friday said that the fire “is currently under control,” but the coast guard did not confirm the claim yesterday morning.
The company said that the ferry was officially carrying 239 passengers and 51 crew, as well as 153 trucks and trailers, and 32 passenger vehicles.
However, raising concern for how many potential unofficial passengers could still be missing, the coast gaurd said that two of the rescued people were not included on the manifest.
Both were Afghans, the coast guard said.
The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 127 Bulgarians were on the passenger list, including 37 truck drivers.
Another 24 were from Turkey, the country’s NTV station said, while Greece’s ERT television said there were 21 Greeks onboard.
Among the rescued, 10 were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties and minor injuries, ERT said.
A specialized Greek rescue team that boarded the burning vessel ceased its efforts on Friday evening because of the high heat on the ship, the dense smoke and the darkness, Athens News Agency reported.
The 27-year-old ship’s latest safety check was at Igoumenitsa, Greece, on Wednesday, the company said.
There is heavy maritime traffic between the western ports of Igoumenitsa and Patras and the Italian ports of Brindisi and Ancona. The last fire on a vessel in the Adriatic occurred in December 2014 on the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic. Thirteen people died in that blaze.
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