Ferry Catches Fire Off Greek Coast With Hundreds on Board

Italian, Greek and Albanian vessels battled gale-force winds and rough seas on Sunday as they tried to rescue hundreds of passengers stranded on a ferry that caught fire off the northwestern coast ofGreece en route to Italy.

Italian news media reported that the fire broke out on the car deck of the ferry, which was heading to the Italian port of Ancona. The ship was carrying 422 passengers and 56 crew members, according to the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry. The ministry said that 234 of the passengers were Greek and that the ship was also carrying passengers from Turkey, Italy, Albania, Switzerland, France, Georgia, Belgium, Austria, Syria and other countries.

By about 5 p.m. Sunday, 161 people had been removed from the ship, according to Italian officials who were coordinating the rescue operation. But the fire on board had still not been put out, they said. More than 300 people were still on board.

Italian officials said that one passenger had died while trying to get off the ship, but there were no other details. The Italian Navy said several injured passengers had been transported to hospitals in Italy, and the Italian defense minister, Roberta Pinotti, said that the rescue efforts would continue through the night.

Throughout the day, ships and helicopters departed from several Italian ports to reach the stricken boat. The ferry, the Norman Atlantic, sails under an Italian flag but was chartered by a Greek company, ANEK Lines. It caught fire about 35 miles north of the Greek island of Corfu after leaving the Greek port of Igoumenitsa early Sunday morning, the charter company said in a statement. It did not say what caused the fire.

A distress call was issued shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday, requesting that all ships in the channel off Otranto in the Puglia region divert course to assist with the rescue efforts.

Italian news media broadcast images of the ship enveloped in smoke. Greece’s merchant marine minister, Miltiades Varvitsiotis, described the rescue operations as “particularly difficult and complicated,” and the Italian Navy said Sunday evening that the smoke was hampering the rescue.

Passengers found refuge on the top deck of the ship, according to the Italian Navy, which is coordinating the rescue operations.

But a Greek woman, who gave her name only as Athina, told a Greek television station that she and about 40 other passengers could feel the heat from the fire on the deck before boarding a lifeboat. “The deck was hot, it was burning our feet,” she said. “We couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Late Sunday afternoon, the ship was successfully attached to a tow boat, as navy helicopters carried passengers to safety.

“The severe weather conditions are still making it difficult for ships to get close, and it’s beginning to be dark," said an Italian Defense Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified according to Italian institutional practices.

Pope Francis said during his weekly message on Sunday that he was praying for the passengers of the ferry.

In a separate accident in the region, a Turkish cargo ship collided with another merchant vessel and sank off the coast of Italy in the northern Adriatic on Sunday, killing two crew members and leaving four others missing, officials said, according to The Associated Press.