The evacuation of the stricken Norman Atlantic ferry sailing from Patras to Ancona, has been completed.
The Italian coast guard confirmed that the number of known dead rose to 10 today, whilst the Greek authorities have only confirmed 8. Several bodies were found floating in the Adriatic waters nearby the site, but the number of dead and evacuated did not match the 478 passengers and crew members listed on board. As the ship stopped in the port of Igoumenitsa, it is possible that some people may have disembarked.
“We cannot say how many people may be missing,” said Italy’s transport minister.
People or bodies may have drifted anywhere between Italy and Albania, during the complicated operations in the acrid smoke and extremely bad weather overnight. Altogether, one body was found on Sunday, four were picked-up on Monday morning, while another three bodies were recovered on Monday afternoon.
A lot of people unable to hold on to the life-boats may have drifted away, wearing their life-vests but having to battle with gale force winds and rough freezing waters.
“Basically, it was brought to our attention we wouldn’t need a lifeboat, and then all of a sudden we did — and by that time we were up and there was a queue all down the stairs and people in mass panic,” Bruce Manning-Williams, who was travelling back to England from Greece with his fiance, told the BBC.
The couple decided there was no chance of them making it to the life boats in such a panicked situation and decided to stay on board along with other passengers, praying to be rescued.
“I saw four dead people with my own eyes. I am quite sure. They were in front of me,” a Turkish passenger told Italian news agency Ansa.
A formal criminal investigation has been launched into the accident, a representative for the prosecutor in Bari, Italy, Giuseppe Volpe, confirmed to ABC News.
“There were hundreds of containers with oil, they went on fire,” one Greek survivor said. “Floors started collapsing from the heat, they knew there was something wrong,” he insisted.
Italian captain Argilio Giacomazzi, was the last of the crew to leave the ship.
Several relatives of the passengers listed on board that have still not been recovered, keep calling the Italian and Greek coastguards, whereas others are seeking their loved ones in the ports where survivors have been brought ashore.