Passenger ferry evacuated after fire breaks out off Greece

Rescue teams battle high winds to help an Italian-flagged car ferry with 411 passengers and 55 crew on fire off Corfu

An international rescue effort was under way in high winds after a car ferry with 466 people on board caught fire while sailing from Greece to Italy and its captain ordered its evacuation, officials said on Sunday.

The fire reportedly broke out in the garage of the Norman Atlantic ferry, leaving it striken around 44 miles north of Corfu. Passengers quickly moved to the upper decks and around 170 were evacuated in lifeboats and picked up by a freighter passing nearby.

But other lifeboats were rendered useless by an electrical fault and Greek news reports suggested that some of them had been destroyed by the blaze. The remaining 296 people were left stranded as gale force winds hampered the rescue operation.

Greek television reported the fire has been brought under control but the captain of the ship was quoted by coast guard sources as saying the Norman Atlantic had become "ungovernable," meaning its steering mechanism no longer is working, and that it is drifting toward the Albanian coast.

At least two rescue ships were at the scene by mid morning but were unable to approach because of the rough seas.

The ferry that set out from the northern Greek port of Igomenitsa was due to arrive at the Adriatic port of Ancona on Sunday afternoon at 5pm local time. Rescue operations are being coordinated by the coast guard at Bari and also involve the Italian Navy, a Greek army helicopter and coast guard helicopters from Sicily.

The Italian­flagged ship is managed by the Agenzia Archibugi company from Ancona in the Marche region.

Most of the passengers were lorry drivers but some were families with children, according to radio reports reaching Bari.

The fire started just before dawn when the ferry was around 15 nautical miles from the Albanian port of Valona.

"The weather conditions are not good, we are working with great difficulty, we hope that everything will be alright," said Nikos Dendias, the Greek Defence minister.

^{File photograph of the vessel Norman Atlantic (PAOLO GANGEMI/REUTERS)}

"We are following the affair of the ferry between Greece and Italy, in contact with (Greek) premier Samaras and there is maximum involvement of our Navy," said Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister.

Passengers who telephoned Greek television stations gave dramatic accounts of the situation.

"They tried to lower some boats, but not all of us could get in. There is no coordination," one said. "It's dark, the bottom of the vessel is on fire. We are on the bridge, we can see a boat approaching... we opened some boxes and got some life vests, we are trying to save ourselves."

It was unclear whether there had been any casualties or whether any passengers were in the water, where cold winter temperatures would make survival difficult unless rescue came quickly

telegraph news
.