Criminal investigation launched into how Italian-owned car ferry caught fire
As passengers evacuated, prosecutor investigates disaster that killed seven
Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation as hundreds of people were evacuated and two more bodies recovered yesterday from the Italian ferry fire - which brought the total death toll to seven, according to the Italian coast guard.
Earlier, authorities found four bodies in the water and the body of one Greek man was recovered on Sunday from a lifeboat chute.
Authorities said the evacuation of passengers and crew had been completed by yesterday afternoon. The captain, Argilio Giacomazzi, 62, was the last to leave the ferry, the coast guard said, in line with maritime tradition.
The Italian navy said the latest numbers indicate 414 people had been rescued from the ferry.
The ferry company had originally said there were 478 passengers and crew on board the ferry.
Now prosecutors in the Italian port of Bari have opened a criminal investigation into how the car ferry Norman Atlantic caught fire at sea during a crossing from Greece to Italy.
Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe announced a probe to examine whether negligence contributed to the disaster.
The announcement of the criminal probe came as a group of 49 exhausted people arrived at Bari after they were rescued.
The Italian-owned ship, which was travelling from Patras in western Greece to Ancona in Italy, has been drifting since a fire ripped through its car deck in the early hours of Sunday, leaving it impossible to steer.
A flotilla of merchant, coastguard and military ships from Greece, Italy and Albania were involved in what proved a challenging rescue operation amid stormy seas.
Some of the rescued passengers have displayed symptoms of hypothermia.
Underlining the challenges posed by the continuing bad weather, the merchant ship Spirit of Piraeus, which had picked up some evacuees, was unable to dock at the Italian port of Brindisi yesterday, opting instead to head to a bigger container port further up the coast at Bari.
In desperate scenes on Sunday, terrified passengers pleaded by mobile phone to be saved from the vessel, which was travelling through high winds and stormy seas.
"I cannot breathe, we are all going to burn like rats - God save us," cried one of the ship's cooks.
Italian authorities have mobilised four tugs to bring the Norman Atlantic to port - either in Italy or Albania - once the evacuation has been completed.
The miserable conditions were recounted by passengers to the Greek television stations.
"We are on the top deck, we are soaked, we are cold, and we are coughing from the smoke. There are women, children and old people," passenger Giorgos Styliaras told Mega TV.
Another told the station that "our shoes were melting" from the fire broke out.
The Greek maritime ministry had earlier said most of the passengers were Greek, with others coming from Turkey, Italy, Albania, Germany, Switzerland, France, Russia, Austria, Britain and the Netherlands.
The ferry, built in 2009, was believed to have been holding 195 vehicles, including more than 20 tankers carrying olive oil.
