414 passengers rescued from burning Greek ferry

At least five people died after a car ferry caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Greek and Italian officials said yesterday, as survivors described a terrifying ordeal that could easily have been much more deadly.

Four bodies were recovered from the water around the stricken Norman Atlantic yesterday, a day after the body of a 62-year-old Greek man was pulled from the heaving sea.

A 24-hour evacuation operation that proved to be extremely difficult was concluded shortly after midday with the Italian navy saying only a skeleton crew of nine men had been left on board to prepare for the boat being towed to port.

The navy said the latest numbers indicate 414 people have been rescued from the ferry, and five bodies removed, reports AP.

They and other evacuees told how the fire triggered panic which the crew appeared ill-prepared to deal with.

One of the first passengers off in Bari told reporters he had thought he was going to die as parts of the boat became engulfed by thick smoke as the ferry was travelling from Greece from Italy.

"We did not know what to do. The staff had no idea how to get people off the boat," he said.

"The lifeboats did not work, there was only one of them in the water and none of the crew were there to help people."

The evacuation was completed nearly 36 hours after a fire broke out on the car deck and left the huge vessel drifting dangerously in high seas off the coast of Albania.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe announced a criminal investigation which will seek to establish whether negligence contributed to the disaster.

The Italian owner of the boat, Carlo Visentini, said he would cooperate fully.

The Italian navy and coastguard worked through the night trying to get people off a boat that was being buffeted by powerful, bitingly cold winds and huge waves.

The Italian-owned ship, which was travelling from Patras in western Greece to Ancona in Italy, started drifting because the fire put its steering system out of action.

A flotilla of merchant, coastguard and military ships from Greece, Italy and Albania were involved in the rescue efforts.

Some of the rescued passengers displayed mild symptoms of hypothermia but doctors treating the evacuees indicated that they were mainly dealing with shock and trauma.