Greece ferry fire: 1 dead, another injured as passengers plead to be rescued from burning ferry

Athens:  1 person was dead and another injured as desperate passengers pleaded via mobile phone to be saved from a burning ferry off the Greek island of Corfu today as rescuers battled gale-force winds to get to them.

But with gusts of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour making rescue difficult and dangerous, the crew has so far only managed to get 150 of the 478 people off the stricken "Norman Atlantic", Greek officials said.

Seas were so violent that only 35 of those have so far been lifted from a lifeboat to a tanker that came to their aid, Greek Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said hours into the emergency.

He said seven merchant vessels have encircled the ferry in an attempt to shelter it from fierce Force 10 winds, as Greek and Italian firefighting vessels raced from their coasts.

Italian navy spokesman Riccardo Rizzotto said four helicopters were already at the scene and the ship's captain had told coastguards that the ferry was now drifting towards the Albanian coast.

"The weather conditions are so bad we need an extraordinary level of support, which is effectively what is being put in place," he said.

It was unclear if there had been casualties or if there were any passengers in the water, but Rizzotto one 58-year-old Italian man has been airlifted to Italy suffering from the symptoms of hypothermia.

Freezing passengers huddled on the top deck of the ship told of their terror in calls to Greek television stations.

"We are on the top deck, we are soaked, we are cold and we are coughing from the smoke. There are women, children and old people," passenger Giorgos Styliaras told Mega TV.

'Our shoes were melting'

Another told the station that "our shoes were melting" from the heat of the fire when they were mustered in the ship's reception area.

Haulage company boss Giannis Mylonas, who was in contact with three of his drivers on the vessel, said there were between 20 and 25 tanker trucks filled with olive oil on board.

"They are taking too long to find a way to help them. Let's hope this ferry will stand the heat of the fire," he told the station.