A hearth on an Italy-bound ferry within the Ionian Sea early Friday required rescuers to hold out an in a single day evacuation of greater than 280 folks close to the Greek island of Corfu, authorities mentioned.
A crew member and two passengers have been hospitalized with respiratory difficulties. There have been no preliminary reviews of anybody lacking, however a full test of passenger and crew member lists was anticipated to take a number of hours, the Greek coast guard mentioned.
The rescued passengers have been being transported to Corfu.
“This can be a troublesome operation and we should stay cautious. The ultimate accounting of the folks on board will happen on Corfu, when everybody rescued is assembled there,” Greek Deputy Minister for Delivery Costas Katsafados instructed state-run ERT tv.
The pre-dawn hearth broke out Friday on the Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia shortly after it left the port of Igoumenitsa, in northwest Greece, for the Italian port of Brindisi, with 239 passengers and 51 crew members on board.
The 183-metre ferry, which was inbuilt 1995, was travelling close to the small Greek island of Ereikousa, 15 kilometers north of Corfu, when the hearth began. Photos of the ferry from native tv channels indicated the blaze was intensive.
Greek truck driver Giorgos Parlantzas, one of many rescued passengers, recounted what occurred on the Euroferry Olympia. “I used to be sleeping in my cabin after they got here to alert us. I grabbed my ID and headed for the deck the place folks have been being assembled. It will need to have been about 3 or 4 a.m. And we have been put onto boats,” mentioned Parlantzas, talking by phone after arriving in Corfu.
Six boats from Greece’s coast guard and navy participated within the rescue, together with 4 helicopters, an Italian customs inspection boat and a number of other passing vessels, senior coast guard official Nikos Lagadianos mentioned.
Rescued passengers, some wrapped in foil blankets, arrived in Corfu aboard the Italian inspection vessel and have been being taken to an meeting space, the place paramedics have been finishing up first-aid checks, native officers mentioned.