By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Air crews began lifting passengers off a burning ferry adrift in the Adriatic Sea on Sunday, racing to rescue as many of the hundreds trapped on board as possible before nightfall as storms hampered seaborne operations.

Helicopters were taking passengers off the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic in pairs and transferring them to a nearby vessel, officials said.

There were no confirmed reports of casualties and differing accounts of how many people had been rescued from the ferry, which was carrying almost 500 passengers and crew when it sent a distress signal early on Sunday after fire broke out on its lower deck.

Greek authorities said 131 people were clear of the danger zone while an official said 150 had managed to get off the ship aboard a rescue boat.

Each air transfer was taking around 15 minutes per helicopter, according to a Greek defence ministry official. Another official said two Italian and two Greek helicopters were involved in the rescue.

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Map locating the position of the Norman Atlantic, a ferry that was carrying more than 400 passengers …

Coastguard spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said the heavy rain that was hampering the rescue had helped contain the fire although the ship was still burning. Two tugboats were present, one of which had managed to approach the ship to try to extinguish the blaze.

Greek Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said the very bad weather, with winds of up to 55 miles (88 kilometres) per hour earlier, made the operation extremely difficult.

"We are doing everything we can to save those on board and no one, no one will be left helpless in this tough situation," he told reporters. "It is one of the most complicated rescue operations that we have ever done."

Coastguard officials said the Norman Atlantic, which was also carrying more than 200 vehicles, was 44 nautical miles northwest of the island of Corfu when it radioed for help. It was travelling from Patras in western Greece to the Italian city of Ancona.

Lagkadianos said 56 people had been successfully transferred from the rescue boat, on which 150 people had escaped to the container ship Spirit of Piraeus.

INTERNATIONAL RESCUE EFFORT

Command of the operation was transferred to Italy after the ship drifted out of Greek waters but officials were coordinating closely and an Albanian coastguard vessel was also taking part.

A coastguard official said nearby passenger and container ships had attempted to form a ring around the burning vessel to try to form a windbreak to allow small rescue boats to approach, but the rough seas made the manoeuvre difficult.

Officials said there were 478 passengers and crew on the Norman Atlantic, of whom 268 were Greek, while a foreign ministry official said there were also passengers from countries including Germany, Italy, Austria, Turkey, France and the Netherlands. Many appeared to be truck drivers.

The fire broke out in the lower deck garage of the vessel but there were differing accounts of when it started. Initial reports said the fire began at around 6.00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) but Italian officials put the time at 4.30 a.m.

The Norman Atlantic is a 26,900-tonne, roll-on roll-off ferry chartered by Greek ferry company ANEK. According to marine traffic data, it was built in 2009 and previously operated in Italy. ANEK said in a statement it was cooperating with rescue authorities.

(Additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Alkis Konstantinidis and Benet Koleka in Vlore and Gavin Jones in Rome; Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by John Stonestreet)

Hundreds trapped on burning ferry in heavy seas

A rescue effort is launched in high winds after a blaze breaks out on a vessel sailing from Greece to Italy.
Pleas for help among 466 aboard

Gaza’s Hamas rulers prevented a group of children from entering Israel on Sunday for a postwar conciliatory trip meant to foster peace, Hamas and organizers said.

The 37 children, most of whom have lost a parent in fighting between Hamas and Israel, were to enter Israel on Sunday and spend a week visiting Jewish and Arab communities, a zoo, and travel to the West Bank for a meeting with the Palestinian president.

But a bus carrying the children and their adult chaperones was turned back when it reached the main crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Eyad Bozum said the decision to bar the children’s entry was made “to protect the culture of our children and our people” from normalizing relations with Israel. He said Hamas would make sure such a trip “will never happen again.”

Israel and Hamas fought a brutal 50-day war this summer that killed 2,100 Palestinians and destroyed parts of the impoverished coastal enclave. On the Israeli side, the fighting killed 72 people and disrupted the lives of millions of people.

Yoel Marshak, one of the trip’s organizers, said the visit was meant to a show a positive side of Israel and promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

“These children will one day be the leaders of Gaza and they would have remembered this trip and known that we can live in peace, side by side,” he said. “The trip was meant to be a big hug for them.”

Marshak said he received written approval for the trip three weeks ago from Hamas and that the cancellation came as a surprise. He said he and other organizers were working to reorganize the trip.

Malik Fraij, another organizer, said he was disappointed that Hamas chose to prevent the children’s entry for “political reasons.”