Helicopter rescue crews evacuated 427 people from the ferry which caught fire in the Adriatic Sea

There were no fire alarms at first, no knocks on the door from the crew, just thick, acrid smoke filling cabins and waking passengers on the overnight ferry from Greece to Italy.
In the chaos that followed, passengers said, they received virtually no instructions from the crew. The principle of women and children first went out the window, and passengers started pushing and shoving and came to blows over seats in the lifeboats and helicopter baskets.
"Everyone there was trampling on each other to get on to the helicopter," Greek truck driver Christos Perlis said from one of the rescue vessels summoned after the Italian-flagged ferry caught fire in the Adriatic Sea. "The jungle law prevailed," said another Greek passenger, Irene Varsioti. "There was no queue or order. No respect was shown for children."

Helicopter rescue crews evacuated 427 people from the ferry which caught fire in the Adriatic Sea. Photo / AP

Italian and Greek helicopter rescue crews yesterday evacuated the last of the known survivors aboard the crippled, fire-blackened vessel, bringing the number rescued to 427.

But the death toll climbed to at least 10, and rescuers searched below deck and scoured the surrounding waters for more possible victims amid serious discrepancies in the ship's manifest and confusion over how many people were aboard.
The vessel's operator, Anek Lines, said 475 were on the ferry. But Italian officials said the names on the manifest may have represented just reservations, not actual passengers. Italian navy Admiral Giovanni Pettorino said 80 of those rescued were not on the list at all. "We cannot say how many people may be missing," Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said.
The blaze broke out on the car deck of the Norman Atlantic while the ferry was travelling from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy. The cause was under investigation.
Greek truck driver Afrosini Bezati said she feared several of her colleagues had perished because they chose to sleep in their rigs where the fire broke out rather than take cabins upstairs. "They were stuck and could not get out."
The Italian military congratulated itself for a remarkable around-the-clock rescue operation in horrendous weather: 40 knot (75km/h) winds, high seas, choking smoke and the dark of the Adriatic night. Hundreds of passengers, crew members and two dogs were plucked from the decks as the fire raged. As they waited to be rescued, they were drenched by cold winter rain and firefighting hoses, while their feet burned from the flames below.
"I witnessed an image of hell as described by Dante, on a ship where the decks were melting and we were trying to find some place that was not burning to stand on," said Greek passenger Chrysostomos Apostolou.
Some passengers suffered hypothermia, others mild carbon monoxide poisoning, but the first big group to reach land - 49 people who came ashore in Bari - walked off their rescue ship on their own, exhausted and draped in blankets.
Navy Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi hailed the Italian ferry captain, Argilio Giacomazzi, for having stayed on board to see the evacuation through.
But passengers said the mostly Italian crew left them to fend for themselves. Several said that they knew to get out of their cabins only because other passengers banged on their doors or because they couldn't breathe from the smoke. Vartsioti said: "The entire crew was criminally unacceptable. There was no alarm. We awoke on our own."
British show-jumper Nick Channing-Williams said he heard an alarm at 5 am, well after the flames were underway. Passengers said eventually an order went out for them to get their life vests and come to the upper decks.
He added: "The fire was basically cooking everybody's feet. ... People just panicked. When the flames are licking up the side of the boat and there's no sign of help ... you do feel somewhat helpless."