Giant Greek ship catches fire with 291 passengers on board

At least 11 people are missing from the Italian ferry that caught fire in the early hours of Friday, Feb. 18th, off the island of Corfu, Greece.

(GREECE – AP).- A gigantic transport ship caught fire when it had 291 passengers on board, of which 276 have been rescued and identified by the authorities of Greece.

According to information revealed by the Merchant Navy, the transport ship (ferry) “Grimaldi Lines“ the ship was traveling from the Greek port of Igumenitsa to the Italian port of Brindisi when the fire broke out.

It has been confirmed that two people remain trapped in the Greece ferry fire and that 12 people are missing, despite the fact that this fact was recorded during the early hours of Friday, February 18, 2022, and several hours of rescue work have passed.

A slightly injured man helped by coast guard officers, arrives at the port of Corfu island, northwestern Greece, after the evacuation of a ferry, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. More than 280 people have been evacuated from a ferry in northwestern Greece that caught fire overnight while heading to southern Italy, authorities said. (Stamatis Katopodis/InTime News via AP)

According to local media reports citing sources from the Ministry of the Merchant Marine, so far 276 people have been identified out of the 290 on the list of passengers and crew.

Two people are still trapped in one of the ferry’s three garages (a Turkish and a Bulgarian), and it has also been detected that there was a migrant traveling as a stowaway, bringing the total number of people on board to 291.

#Greece
The Greek coastguards have released this impressive video of the Euroferry Olympia. Images show the extent of the damage caused by the fire. pic.twitter.com/chzXHMH9yZ

— Iliana Mier-Lavin (@imlavin) February 18, 2022

For now there is no confirmation if the missing persons could be found inside the ship. Two ships with water cannons are still working to extinguish the fire.

Personen-Fahrzeugfähre #Euroferry Olympia befindet sich im Seegebiet NE der Insel Ereikousa – Passagiere in Booten. Feuer außer Kontrolle. Auf Deck 3 brach auf der Strecke v. Igoumenitsa nach Brindisi Feuer aus unbekannter Ursache aus . #EuroferryOlympia https://t.co/ADu3VunGfp

— Muschelschloss.com (@Muschelschloss) February 18, 2022

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