Greece: hopes of finding survivors aboard the burned ferry are fading
The Euroferry Olympia of the Italian company Grimaldi caught fire on February 18 off the Greek island of Corfu and must be towed on Tuesday to a Greek port to facilitate the search for the ten missing.
AFP - ANGELOS TZORTZINIS
Text by: RFI Follow
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The Italian ferry which burned on February 18 off the Greek island of Corfu must be towed on Tuesday to a Greek port to facilitate the search for the ten missing.
Hopes of finding survivors are dwindling, authorities say.
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Thick smoke still escapes from the Euroferry
Olympia
of the Italian company Grimaldi, which
caught fire on Friday
for an as yet undetermined reason ten nautical miles north of Corfu in the Ionian Sea.
The balance sheet currently stands at one dead, three injured and ten missing.
The ferry, which linked the Greek port of Igoumenitsa (in the northwest) and the Italian port of Brindisi, must be towed to "
a safe port
" in western Greece "
in order to continue operations with maximum security
,” the Greek Coast Guard said in a statement.
“
Search and rescue possibilities on board the Euroferry Olympia have been exhausted in its current position
,” they add.
“
Four tugs, two port police patrol boats and a fire vessel are taking part in the search
” on the ferry, an official from the port police press office
told
AFP .
Possible unregistered passengers on board the ferry
Among the 281 survivors, including many truck drivers from Eastern European countries, are two Afghan migrants who had not been registered on the passenger list, raising fears that other people may have boarded without being counted. .
Three injured drivers remain hospitalized Tuesday in Corfu: a Belarusian released alive by rescuers on Sunday and suffering from respiratory problems, as well as a Bulgarian and a Romanian, according to a hospital source.
About fifty passengers, including Italian tourists, have already been repatriated, according to the authorities.
The possibility of external pollution for the moment ruled out
The Greek coast guard patrol boats are also monitoring the possibility of pollution, but for the moment "
no slick index has been found
", according to the same source.
Footage of the boat, broadcast by public television
ERT
, shows charred vehicles in the holds and firefighters wearing breathing masks carrying out searches at "
very high temperatures ranging from 400 to 900 degrees
".
“
But hopes are dwindling on the fifth day of the fire ,” according to the
ERT
channel
.
According to the Italian company Grimaldi, owner of the ferry, 153 commercial vehicles and 32 cars were on board.
(
with AFP
)
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