One of the missing passengers aboard Grimaldi's Euroferry Olympia, the ferry that caught fire in the waters off Corfu on Friday night, between Italy and Greece, was found alive.
The survivor was spotted aft of the ship, which had left Igoumenitsa on Thursday evening and was headed for Brindisi, and was rescued. There are now 11 people (among them no Italians) who were among the 290 registered on the boarding lists but who are not among those saved from the fire of the ship.
We continue to operate in the open sea around the wreck to look for other survivors: the belly of the ship is still incandescent, the temperatures have reached 600 degrees, which in addition to complicating the extinguishing operations, feeds the anguish on the missing. It cannot be ruled out that someone is trapped inside, but it is still impossible to enter the holds for checks, technical checks and damage counting.
The survivors, including the Italians (43 of the crew and 21 passengers), are still all in Corfu where they were brought yesterday by rescuers.
POLLUTION ALARM - The alert in the area of the accident remains high: the Grimaldi Lines ferry is surrounded by tugs but remains adrift and it is feared that it may sink. In Olympia's tanks there are at least 800 cubic meters of fuel and 23 tons of dangerous goods. The Coast Guard ship Diciotti has already arrived in the area of the accident, equipped with anti-pollution devices, which has a team of experts on board made up of an ISPRA technician and two officers from the marine environmental department.
"At the moment the hull does not show evidence of fractures that could suggest a spill", assured the minister of ecological transition, Roberto Cingolani, speaking to Radio 24: "Priority must be given to the search for the missing. The fire is about to be put out, so the sooner the ship arrives, the sooner everything is safe ".
THE INVESTIGATIONS - As for the investigation into the stake, the hypothesis is that the flames started from the hold, in garage 3, perhaps from a parked vehicle. The Hellenic judiciary is dealing with this, which currently hypothesizes the crimes of shipwreck and an attack on transport safety and which has delegated investigations to the Central Port Authority to which it has asked to identify the triggering of the flames, as soon as possible.
Survivors and witnesses will be heard, some fishermen who were nearby and who may have seen something relevant. The commander and two crew members were also heard for a long time by the judicial authorities.
(Unioneonline / D)
