Athens, February 19 (BNA) Rescue teams in Greece searched Saturday for 12 people believed to be missing after it caught fire in the Ionian Sea while on their way to Italy, as passengers described a frightening evacuation from the ship.
After working through the night to try to put out the fire that broke out on Friday, the Olympia, which was carrying more than 290 passengers and crew, was surrounded by firefighting ships. An Associated Press report said the Greek coast guard and other boats evacuated about 280 of them to Corfu.
Pictures taken on Saturday morning showed thick smoke hanging over the ship, which was carrying 153 trucks and 32 cars.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman said Saturday afternoon that none of the 12 missing people had been found, although there were small pockets of fire on the ferry.
The Greek prosecutor on the island of Corfu has ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire, which broke out three hours after the ferry left the port of Igoumenitsa, on the mainland in northwestern Greece, on the other side of Corfu, bound for the Italian port of Brindisi. The Italian-based operator of the ferry said the fire broke out where cars had stopped.
On Friday, authorities increased the number of missing people from 11 to 12 after discovering that one person from the ferry was not listed on the passenger manifest.
It is believed that most of the other missing passengers are from Bulgaria. Officials said the people rescued included citizens of Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy and Lithuania.
insult