Greek rescuers and firefighters on Monday resumed “difficult” operations to find survivors of a ferry fire on Friday that left one dead while 10 are still missing, authorities said.
Television images still show smoke billowing from the wrecked vessel, the “Euroferry Olympia”.
The ferry of the Italian company Grimaldi caught fire early Friday when it was heading to the Italian port of Brindisi, two hours after leaving the Greek port of Igumenitsa, with 290 people registered on board, including 51 crew members.
“It is a very difficult operation,” a spokeswoman for the Fire Department told AFP, specifying that there are about 40 troops mobilized in tugboats and coast guard boats.
“There’s a lot of term stress and a lot of smoke,” he added.
Most of the passengers were quickly evacuated, but a 21-year-old truck driver from Belarus was only able to be extracted from the ship on Sunday.
On Sunday, rescuers also managed to recover the body of a 58-year-old truck driver.
So far ten truck drivers remain missing, seven Bulgarians, two Greeks and one Turk.
During the evacuation of the passengers, two irregular Afghan immigrants were rescued, which raises fears that there are more missing.
