Dramatic cry for help: “We are stranded and everyone onboard is overwealmed by panic”.

Originally the fire broke out in the garage but quickly spread throughout the ship around 4 in the morning and immediately the evacuation operation started, amid strong winds up to 8 Beaufort.

At that point about 222 cars were in the garage, most of them trucks.

Less than half of the passengers managed to get in the lifeboats, others in panic fell into the sea and the rest are waiting for help on the bridge of the ship.

One of the passengers a truck driver Mr. Alexandros Veneris spoke to protothema.gr and said that: “We’ve been here for so many hours and noone has managed to reach us. Don’t listen to what they say, there is no help as yet. Panic prevails and everyone has started to fear and losing their temper. We urge the media to do something to help us. We don’t have much battery left on our mobile phones and we can’t keep taliking to our relatives for much longer”.

According to another truck owner Mr. Yiannis Milonas who is also in the flaming ship, there are about 20 to 25 tanks with oil and he is in constant contact with the drivers. He also said that passengers were alerted immediately and rushed to the ship deck.

Earlier another woman called in a television broadcast in Sky and according to her, her cousin and his children are on board and said to her over the telephone “Pray for us for there is no escape – We shall freeze to death if flames don’t consume us”.