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© Reuters. A passenger from Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia disembarks from a Greek coast guard vessel on the port of Corfu, after being rescued from the ship that caught fireplace off the island of Corfu, Greece, February 18, 2022. Stamatis Katapodis/Eurokinissi by way of R
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By Angeliki Koutantou and Giselda Vagnoni
ATHENS/ROME (Reuters) -Eight passengers had been lacking after a blaze engulfed a ferry crusing from Greece to Italy early on Friday and fireplace fighters had been nonetheless battling to rescue folks trapped on the ship, authorities stated.
A complete of 240 passengers and 51 crew had been onboard the Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia when the fireplace broke out, and rescue vessels had taken most of them to the island of Corfu the place ambulances had been ready.
The Greek fireplace brigade stated two males trapped within the ship’s storage had been rescued. Hearth fighters had been making an attempt to achieve one other three.
Grimaldi Strains, the proprietor of the vessel, stated eight passengers had been lacking.
Aerial footage launched by the coastguard confirmed rows of burnt vans on the blackened deck after flames swept by the 183-metre (600-foot) ferry that had been making a nine-hour journey by the night time.
“The worst factor is the automobiles within the storage are glued subsequent to one another, there isn’t a escape route,” one Greek truck driver, who didn’t give his title, stated after arriving on Corfu.
The reason for the blaze was nonetheless being investigated, Greek authorities stated.
At the very least 10 folks had been taking to a Corfu hospital, most with respiratory issues, a Greek well being ministry official informed state tv, and there have been no instant stories of extreme accidents.
Earlier on Friday, passengers huddled in yellow blankets on an Italian rescue vessel as enormous plumes of smoke poured out of the ferry, one video confirmed. The phrases “Could Day” had been repeatedly blasting from the audio system, within the footage uploaded on Greek information web site Proto Thema.
The ferry sailed from Igoumenitsa, the biggest port in western Greece, and was headed to the Italian port of Brindisi. It carried 153 autos, a lot of them vans, Grimaldi Strains stated.
The fireplace broke out when the ship was close to Corfu within the Ionian Sea. Hours after the alarm was raised, the vessel was nonetheless ablaze, drifting in Albanian waters, Grimaldi Strains stated.
“At round 3.30-4.00 a.m. I smelled smoke,” Rumen Metodiev, a Bulgarian truck driver, informed Bulgaria’s BNT channel. “The vans and the paperwork, the whole lot burned. There was no probability to place out the fireplace,” he stated.
Bulgaria’s overseas ministry stated 127 of its residents had been on board.
Grimaldi Strains spokesman Paul Kyprianou informed Reuters that there have been indications the fireplace began in certainly one of its holds. The corporate was making each effort to assist the passengers – most of them from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey – get residence, he added.
“The flames had been extremely excessive, we had been a number of miles away from the ferry when it occurred,” Colonello Felice Lodovico Simone Cicchetti from Italy’s monetary police, who took half within the rescue operation, stated.
“The fireplace was so massive and quick that in a matter of 5 minutes it turned unmanageable for the folks aboard.”
In 2014, 10 folks had been killed when the automotive ferry Norman Atlantic carrying 466 passengers and crew caught fireplace whereas crusing from Greece to Italy.
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