A glimmer of hope – two days after a car ferry caught fire off Corfu, emergency services have now been able to save a missing person. Other survivors cannot be ruled out.
Athens – Rescue workers have rescued one of the twelve missing passengers from the burning car ferry “Euroferry Olympia”. The Greek Minister of Shipping Giannis Plakiotakis confirmed this to the Skai television channel.
The man is said to come from Lithuania and had been in the ferry, which had been on fire since Friday, for more than 48 hours. This gave hope again that other people might have survived – seven Bulgarians, three Greeks and one Turk are missing.
Difficult rescue operation
On Sunday, firefighters managed to get on board the ferry – previously extremely high temperatures of around 600 degrees on the outside of the ship had made access impossible. The rescued had apparently stayed in the bow of the ferry.
A fire broke out on the “Euroferry Olympia” on Friday night for previously unknown reasons, which has not yet been completely extinguished. 280 people were rescued during Friday, twelve have since been missing. They are said to have slept in their vehicles on the garage decks, trapped by the flames and heat. The ship is north of Corfu and was secured there by tugboats. Security forces fear the weather could deteriorate and hamper firefighting and rescue efforts. dpa
