Fire on Greek ferry kills 10; over 400 rescued in tough conditions

The number of dead in a fire that erupted on a ferry off the Greek island of Corfu late on Sunday has risen to 10, officials said today, with the evacuation of all those on board now complete.

One man was killed when trying to escape the ship, and a further nine bodies have since been found.

Rescue crews battled overnight with gale-force winds and monster waves, using helicopters to pluck more than 420 people from the frigid decks of the Greek-operated ferry crippled by fire in the Adriatic Sea.

It was not clear if others are still missing. The Italian authorities said they could not verify the actual number of people originally on board. Rescuers are still searching the vessel.

The ferry company operating the journey from the Greek city of Patras to Ancona in Italy said a total of 478 people had been on the ship when it left.

Italy's transport minister Maurizio Lupi said that only 427 had been accounted for so far, but added that it was the responsibility of the port of departure to verify actual passenger numbers.

"That is why we are continuing our [search] effort - we cannot know what the exact number was," he said.

The captain of the ferry, apparently prepared to sink with his ship in the highest tradition of seamanship, was the last to be rescued, more than 36 hours after sending out a distress signal.

Captain Argilio Giacomazzi handed control of the stricken vessel to the Italian navy at 1350 GMT on Monday.

It is unclear what caused the fire to break out on Sunday on the car deck of the ferry.

Italian prosecutors announced on Monday that they had opened a criminal investigation into the fire and would look into whether negligence had played a role.

Over 230 passengers and 34 crew members were Greek nationals. Others came from Italy, Turkey, Albania, Germany and several other countries. Four British nationals have been rescued from the stricken ferry, according to the UK Foreign Office.

The chief executive of the Visentini Group that owns the vessel, Carlo Visentini, said the ferry had passed a recent technical inspection despite a "slight malfunction" in one of the fire doors, Italy's Ansa news agency reports.

"The tests confirmed that the boat was in full working order," he said, adding that the fire door had been repaired "to the satisfaction of the inspectors".

Ferries are an important mode of transport between Greece's hundreds of islands as well as neighbouring countries.