Pallade Veneta - Three hurt in ferry fire off Greece

Two people were still trapped on board and had telephoned for help, with a Super Puma helicopter en route to pick them up, the Greek coastguard said.

The fire on the Euroferry Olympia, which was heading to Italy from the Greek port city of Igoumenitsa opposite Corfu, broke out at 4:30 am (0130 GMT). The vessel was carrying 239 passengers and 51 crew on board as well as vehicles.

The director of Corfu hospital, Leonidas Roumbatis, told Greek public television ERT that two passengers who had light injuries were admitted for precautionary reasons.

A Greek coastguard patrol boat had earlier brought in a 42-year-old member of the ship's crew who had breathing difficulties.

Television images showed the man, walking with difficulty and being helped by firefighters.

"The passengers were transferred safe and sound onto rescue boats to Corfu," Rodi Kratsa, the governor of the Ionian Islands region, told ERT television.

The coastguard said the rescue operation was still under way.

A Greek coastguard spokeswoman said it would take several hours to extinguish the fire.

- Stowaway fears -

There are fears there could be unknown passengers on the ship, such as migrant stowaways who frequently sneak onto ferries between Greece and Italy.

"We heard that the fire started in the hold, but it's not certain," one man who identified himself as a passenger told Skai TV.

"It took just 15 minutes for the fire to reach the deck," he said, adding that the mostly Italian crew's response had been "simply perfect".

"They were very organised. The crew saved us," he said.

Television images showed the ship, owned by Italy's Grimaldi Lines, enveloped in flames which sent plumes of black smoke into the sky.

The cause of the fire, which erupted off the island of Ereikousa between Greece and Albania, is still unknown.

Greek coastguard patrol and tow boats were rushed to the site and a frigate and two helicopters took part in the rescue operations.

An Italian patrol boat also assisted, and some rescued passengers later told Italian news agency Ansa that the flames were "gigantic" and that panic had ensued.

"The evacuation was not a simple matter," the patrol boat's commander told Ansa.

Nikos Bardis, a local fisherman, had earlier told ERT that several fishing boats were also circling the stricken vessel, looking for people in the water.

There is heavy maritime traffic between the western Greek ports of Igoumenitsa and Patras and the Italian ports of Brindisi and Ancona.

The last shipboard fire in the Adriatic occurred in December 2014 on the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic. Thirteen people died in the blaze.

str-burs-hec/jph/cdw

E.M.Filippelli--PV