An airlift has begun for scores of passengers trapped aboard a ferry that has gone up in flames.
Watch below:
Italian and Greek helicopter crews were working through the night to airlift passengers in pairs off a burning ferry adrift in the Adriatic Sea, battling darkness and bad weather that hampered rescue efforts by other ships throughout Sunday.
A Greek government official said one man had died but there were no other confirmed reports of casualties among almost 500 passengers and crew
Helicopters were plucking passengers off the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic and transferring them to a nearby vessel, after a dramatic day that began when a fire broke out on its lower deck in the early hours. A Greek Defence Ministry official said two Italian and two Greek Super Puma helicopters had been deployed, with each air transfer taking around 15 minutes as the pairs of passengers are bundled into a rescue basket and winched up from the vessel.As night fell, Greek authorities said 156 people were clear of the danger zone. An official said 150 people had managed to get off the ship aboard a rescue boat earlier in the day.
And another video of raw footage from the ferry: