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 Italian and Greek authorities continued an air search of the sea
around the vessel while they sought to verify the number of
passengers who had been on board, fearing that many people could be
missing.
The fire broke out on Sunday on a vehicle deck of the Norman
Atlantic ferry, whose manifest said should be carrying 478
passengers and crew and more than 200 vehicles. Rescue efforts were
complicated by bad weather.
Italian and Greek helicopters began airlifting passengers from the
upper deck as the ferry drifted in rough seas between Greece and
Italy on Sunday afternoon and continued throughout the night. Ten
people aboard the ferry were killed, the Italian coastguard said.
"It was hell," Dimitra Theodossiou, a Greek soprano opera singer,
told Italy's la Repubblica newspaper. She was evacuated by
helicopter during the night.
 "It was very cold, terribly cold. Nearby ships sprayed water from
their hydrants (to fight the fire) and we were completely wet," she
said.
She was treated for a mild case of hypothermia at a hospital in
Lecce, Italy, and later released.
The Italian captain, Argilio Giacomazzi, abandoned the ship once all
others had been evacuated, Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi
said.
Fifty-six crew members were evacuated, while 234 of those rescued
were Greek, 54 Turkish, 22 Albanians and 22 Italians, Lupi said.
He would not confirm a report from Greece that there were 38 still
missing.
"It's absolutely premature" to say how many are missing, Lupi said.
Some of those rescued were not on the original ship's manifest, and
Italian authorities are looking for a definitive list of passengers
to cross-check it with the names of the survivors, he said, adding
that it was possible that there were illegal migrants aboard.
A medical team and a flight operator had boarded the vessel to
assist the passengers and crew during the rescue, the Italian navy
said. Its San Giorgio amphibious transport ship coordinated the
rescue operation.
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A merchant ship carrying a reported 49 of the ferry passengers,
including four children, arrived in the southern Italian port of
Bari early on Monday.
Bad weather hampered efforts overnight to attach cables to the ferry
for towing. Pictures from Monday afternoon showed the ship still
smoldering, and Lupi said tow cables attached overnight broke.
Italian and Albanian magistrates ordered that the ship be seized in
order to investigate the cause of the fire, which is still unknown,
and magistrates in both countries are deciding together where the
vessel should be towed, Italy's Transport Ministry said in a
statement.
The Italian-flagged ferry, chartered by Greek ferry operator Anek
Lines, was sailing from Patras in western Greece to Ancona in Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking at a year-end news
conference in Rome, praised the work of the Italian-led rescue
effort, which he said had helped avoid a "massacre".
(Additional reporting by Antonio Defano in Bari, George
Georgiopoulos in Athens and Isla Binnie in Rome; Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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