Ferry on fire in Adriatic, Hundreds of passengers including 54 Turks trapped. HT: Bugun. (Bild).
Hundreds of passengers including 54 Turks were trapped on a burning car ferry off Greece on Sunday, pleading to be rescued by a flotilla of nearby ships that battled storm conditions in open water to try to reach them.
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An international rescue effort is under way since Sunday morning after a major fire broke out in the early hours of the day in the garage of an Italian-flagged ferry sailing from the Greek port of Patras to Italy's Ancona with 411 passengers, 55 crew and 222 vehicles on board, coast guard officials said.
The Norman Atlantic, hired by Greek ANEK shipping company, was 33 nautical miles off the small island of Othonoi and12 nautical miles off the coast of Albania when it sent a distress signal.
14:23 local time:The Norman Atlantic is a 26,900-tonne, roll-on roll-off ferry chartered by Greek ferry company ANEK, the coastguard said. According to marine traffic data, it was built in 2009 and previously operated in Italy.
Tug boats were being sent from both Greeceand Italybut would take some time before arriving.
Greek Coast guard tweeted that Rome's Search and Rescue Centre confirmed that 56 passengers from Norman Atlantic have been rescued.
The Greek coastguard said 50 people had been saved from the Italian-registered Norman Atlantic, which was carrying almost 500 passengers and crew when it sent a distress signal after fire broke out on its lower deck.
As high winds and rough seas impeded efforts by other ships to rescue those still on board, it was unclear whether there had been casualties or if any passengers were in the water.
"The ship is still on fire, the floor is burning," passenger George Styliaras told Greek TV by telephone, adding that smoke was making it difficult to breathe. "We don't know how long we can hold on."
Cold winter temperatures would make survival in the sea difficult unless rescue came quickly.
Varvitsiotis said there were 478 passengers and crew aboard the ship, more than the 466 originally reported. Of those, he said 268 were Greek, while a foreign ministry official said there were also passengers from several other countries including Germany, Italy, Austria, Turkey, France and the Netherlands. Many appeared to be truck drivers.
One Greek passenger told a television reporter that language differences hindered communication between passengers and crew.Read the full story here and here.
Air rescue of 478 passengers on Greece-Italy #ferry hampered by high winds @BBCNews http://t.co/Ejs0QN4I8q
— david lepeska (@dlepeska) December 28, 2014#NormanAtlantic: 51 rescuees on Cruise Europa, 39 on Aby Jeannette, 49 on Spirit of Piraeus, 9 flown to Lecce & 1 on IT vessel ~@HCoastGuard
— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) December 28, 2014
Airlift begins for hundreds trapped on burning #Italian ferry http://t.co/qpFx0obWLy @bgnnewsturkey pic.twitter.com/9WlEqCAXWp
— BGN News (@bgnnewsturkey) December 28, 2014
Hellenic Coast Guard @HCoastGuard has tweeted that the number of rescued people from #NormanAtlantic has now raised to 140.
— Stefanos Livos (@stefivos) December 28, 2014
MORE: Italian #NormanAtlantic #ferry which caught fire off Greek coast drifts to Albania http://t.co/HTwvw3SMhU pic.twitter.com/qsLS0MReEf
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) December 28, 2014
Italian ship #NormanAtlantic "does not have enough rafts for all passengers." They still live in Titanic era (1912)?
— Mika Peltokorpi (@MikaPeltokorpi) December 28, 2014
"Pregate per noi, stiamo bruciando". I passeggeri si stanno buttando in mare #NormanAtlantic http://t.co/LaKWXVtXju pic.twitter.com/vgMuwoNrpD
— neXt quotidiano (@neXtquotidiano) December 28, 2014
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