Euroferry Olympia ferry hearth sparks rescue try in Ionian Sea close to Greek coast

There have been conflicting reviews about whether or not any of the opposite lacking 11 would possibly nonetheless be on board.

The hearth broke out on the Euroferry Olympia a number of hours after it had departed the port of Igoumenitsa, en path to the Italian metropolis of Brindisi, in what was purported to be a nine-hour journey. The reason for the fireplace was not instantly identified, and climate situations have been good.

Witnesses, talking to Greek tv retailers, mentioned the fireplace started round 4 a.m. and that crew rapidly tried to alert passengers and produce them to the deck. Passengers got life jackets and requested to descend steps into rescue boats that crew members had lowered into the water; no person jumped straight into the ocean. From there, coast guard vessels and different close by ships got here to collect the passengers and crew and take them to shore.

A video taken earlier than dawn and shared by a number of Greek information retailers confirmed hearth raging throughout a lot of the 600-foot ferry, as one of many crew members mentioned, “Mayday, mayday.”

The ferry — a part of the Grimaldi Strains group, which operates a community of routes throughout the Mediterranean — was additionally carrying some 180 vehicles and vans, in line with Italy’s ANSA information company.

One passenger, talking to the Greek nationwide broadcaster ERT, mentioned that there was a “domino of explosions” because the automobiles caught hearth.

Subsequent helicopter footage launched by Greece’s coast guard confirmed the higher deck of the ferry nearly completely charred, with smoke nonetheless billowing.

The incident Friday had some echoes to a 2014 ferry hearth within the Adriatic Sea, by which 452 folks have been rescued and 11 our bodies recovered. Tugboats later hauled the hulk of that vessel to Brindisi, the identical port the place the Euroferry Olympia had been headed.

Grimaldi, the ferry operator, mentioned in an announcement that it was providing “full help” to those that had been rescued.

It mentioned there was no detectable gas spills or environmental harm that resulted from the fireplace. The operator mentioned the vessel had undergone an inspection two days earlier that yielded a “constructive” final result.

Labropoulou reported from Athens.