Fighting high winds and stormy seas, helicopter rescue crews on Monday evacuated the last of the hundreds of people trapped aboard a Greek ferry that caught fire off Albania. The death toll climbed to seven as survivors told of a frantic rush to escape the flames and pelting rain.
The evacuation was completed in the early afternoon and the captain was the last to leave the ferry, the Italian and Greek coast guards said.
The Italian Coast Guard said two more bodies were recovered Monday afternoon, adding to the four bodies found earlier in the water and the body of one Greek man recovered Sunday from a lifeboat chute.
It didn’t immediately say where the two latest bodies were found.
The Greek Coast Guard said 432 people were rescued from the ferry. Those included passengers and crew, Greek Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said, adding the figures came from Italian authorities who are in charge of the rescue operation.
Specialist Italian coast guard teams were continuing to search the interior of the ferry and five Greek helicopters, a Greek frigate and another ship are still in the area, he said.
The ferry company had originally said there were 478 passengers and crew on board the ferry, the Norman Atlantic, which caught fire Sunday morning.
Officials couldn’t immediately explain the discrepancy between the numbers.
Exhausted and cold from their ordeal, 49 passengers reached land on Monday in the southern Italian port of Bari, more than 24 hours after fire broke out on a car deck of the ferry making a journey from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy.
The Greek and Italian Premiers separately expressed their condolences to the victims and gratitude to the rescue workers.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samras said the “massive and unprecedented operation saved the lives of hundreds of passengers following the fire on the ship in the Adriatic Sea under the most difficult circumstances,” while his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi said the “impressive” rescue efforts prevented “a slaughter at sea.”
Passenger accounts emerging on Monday painted a picture of a panicked reaction as the fire spread. Prosecutors in Bari were opening an investigation into how the fire started.