ATHENS - Desperate passengers pleaded by mobile phone live on TV to be saved from a burning ferry adrift off Albania on Sunday as rescuers battled gale-force winds and billowing smoke to get to them.
"I cannot breath, we are all going to burn like rats -- God save us," cried one of the ship's cooks in a call to his wife, she told journalists.
But with gusts of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour making any approach difficult and dangerous, rescuers have so far only managed to get 136 of the 478 people on the stricken "Norman Atlantic" to safety, Greek officials said.
With night closing in, and the ship drifting towards Albania, tugs hosed its charred stern and midship with sea water. The blaze was said to have broken out in the ferry's car deck.
Despite a relative lull in the storm mid-afternoon, seas were still so violent that the task of plucking passengers from lifeboats and the ship itself was going painfully slowly, the Greek marine ministry confirmed.
As a flotilla of rescue vessels arrived from Greece, Italy and Albania, Greek army Super Puma helicopters winched passengers two by two from the bridge to the Italian ship, Europa, which is coordinating the rescue.
A Greek journalist on board the ship said rescuers were also trying to attach rope ladders to the ferry so passengers could climb down onto tug boats.
A Greek army helicopter had earlier made repeated attempts to save two passengers who fell from an escape chute and were at the mercy of six-metre waves. Their fate was unknown.
Seven merchant vessels had encircled the ferry in an attempt to shelter it from fierce Force 10 winds, officials said, as four Greek and Italian firefighting vessels began arriving from either side of the Adriatic.
Greek Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said an attempt would be made to tow the vessel, with a passenger on board confirming the bid to Greek TV.
AFP
