Greece: deadly fire on a ferry off the island of Corfu

Greek firefighters were still hard at work this Saturday, February 19 to extinguish the fire that raged on a ferry off the island of Corfu.

AP - Uncretid

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Greece, at least twelve people are missing following a major fire that affected an Italian ferry off the island of Corfu on Friday morning.

In total, 278 people were rescued and evacuated.

At least 10 of them were hospitalized, in particular because of respiratory problems.

Saturday morning, the fire is not yet extinguished on board and the Greek firefighters are still hard at work.

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With our correspondent in Athens,

Twelve people who were on board the

liner  are officially still missing, the day after the start of the violent fire, which began to ravage the ferry before sunrise.

The missing would be in particular Bulgarian and Greek truck drivers, who slept inside their vehicle. 

The presence of at least one Afghan stowaway, rescued on Friday, raises fears of the possible presence of other people on board, outside the official records.  

Possible presence of migrants on board

The liner was making a connection between the Greek port of Igoumenitsa, in Epirus, and the Italian city of Brindisi, in the Puglia region.

Migrants regularly embark clandestinely on board this type of ferry, which leaves Greece bound for Italy.  

Some 150 vehicles were on board the burning ferry and initial reports said the fire started from one of the trucks parked in the holds.

In 2014, on this same sea route between Greece and Italy, a comparable fire affected

, causing the death of more than ten people at the time. 

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