Another Massacre Averted As Ship Carrying 900 Migrants Abandoned At Sea

Sky News
Italy's coastguard said they narrowly averted a "massacre" after a cargo ship was abandoned at sea with more than 900 Syrian refugees on board.

Officers said the Blue Sky M's engines had been locked and its steering set on a course which would have seen it smash ashore in Italy's Puglia region.

Two helicopters were scrambled overnight and six coastguard officers boarded the ship and managed to bring it under control just five miles from the rocky coastline.

"It was a real race against the clock," said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.

"Unlocking the engines was a difficult and delicate operation, but they managed to do it."

The migrants on board, including a heavily pregnant woman whose waters broke during the rescue, were taken to the Italian port of Gallipoli.

Canadian woman and her family survive Greece ferry fire

Smoke billows from Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic Sea. AP

Rain and wind lashed the deck of the burning ferry tossing in the Adriatic Sea, and passengers were fighting for the last places on the only lifeboat. Canadian-born Natasha Tsonas and her husband Nassos stood with their two sons amid the chaos, and the only thing left seemed to say goodbye.

They hugged. I love you, they told one another. And they prayed for a miracle to get them off the Norman Atlantic alive.

Suddenly, fire burst up through the deck, and the crush of passengers trying to squeeze into the lifeboat turned heel and fled. Instead of a wall of bodies, what separated the Tsonases from a glimmer of hope now was a wall of flames.

Whereabouts of Canadian listed on Greece ferry unclear

Smoke billows from Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic Sea. AP

Stephanie LevitzThe Canadian Press
A Canadian is among hundreds of people saved in a dramatic rescue at sea after a fire on board a ferry travelling between Greece and Italy.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Department says they are aware of a Canadian who was on board the Norman Atlantic when it caught fire Sunday and has now been rescued.

But the government isn’t releasing any further information.

A spokesperson at the Greek embassy in Ottawa said earlier Monday that one Canadian, identified as N. Pejcinovksi, was listed among the 422 passengers and 56 crew on the ship’s manifest but his whereabouts were unknown.

Canadian man among those rescued in aftermath of Greece ferry fire

The Canadian Press - In this image released by the Italian Navy, smoke billows from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014

Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
A Canadian is among hundreds of people saved in a dramatic rescue at sea after a fire on board a ferry travelling between Greece and Italy.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Department says they are aware of a Canadian who was on board the Norman Atlantic when it caught fire Sunday and has now been rescued.

But the government isn't releasing any further information.

A spokesperson at the Greek embassy in Ottawa said earlier Monday that one Canadian, identified as N. Pejcinovksi, was listed among the 422 passengers and 56 crew on the ship's manifest but his whereabouts were unknown.

Rescue Operation To Save Almost 500 People Onboard Burning Ferry‏ Off Greece

DION DASSANAYAKE | EXPRESS
A RESCUE operation has been launched today to save almost 500 people onboard a ferry that caught on fire midway through its journey.

The blaze broke out this morning onboard the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic which was travelling from Greece's Patras port to Ancona in Italy.

Some 478 passengers along with crew members are onboard the ferry which caught fire in gale-force winds near the Greek island of Corfu.

An evacuation of the boat is currently underway and as many as 130 people had reportedly been rescued but that was no confirmed by Greek officials.

Acclaimed Greek Author Murdered At 83

Acclaimed Greek writer, Menis Koumandareas has been found dead in his home. The 83-year-old writer lived alone in an apartment on Zakynthou Street in Kypseli, where he was found dead this morning.

Police say there were no signs of forced entry in the house, but there is evidence that the place had been selectively searched and suspect the victim knew the perpetrator, who had the intention of robbing the house