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Hundreds of people rescued after fire breaks out on Greece-Italy ferry
The Devdiscourse reported, citing Reuters, the Greek coastguard said that hundreds of people were rescued from a ferry that caught fire between Greece and Italy in the early hours of Friday.
The coast guard said 237 passengers and 51 crew members were on board the Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia and most of them had boarded rescue vessels. Authorities said that there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The ferry had sailed from Igoumenitsa, the largest port in western Greece, and was headed to the Italian port of Brindisi, about nine hours away.
The fire, the cause of which was not immediately known, broke out near the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea. A video uploaded on Greek news website Proto Thema showed the 183-metre (600 foot) ferry engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke. "May Day" was blasting from speakers.
One of the passengers on board a rescue vessel told Mega TV via telephone: "We were woken up around 430 a.m. The fire probably broke out in the garage." At least three coast guard vessels and one Italian financial police vessel were involved in the rescue operation.
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Authorities said said that ship tracking data provided by Refinitive Eikon showed the Euroferry Olympia performing a U-turn northwest of the North Corfu channel. The evacuated passengers and crew were being taken to the port of Corfu.
According to the company's website, the ferry is part of the fleet of group Grimaldi Lines and has a capacity of up to 560 passengers.
Source: devdiscourse
