Fire breaks out on passenger ferry

More than 500 people had to be evacuated by life boat from a Naples-Palermo ferry on Friday after a fire broke out in the ship's car deck as they slept.
All of the 526 passengers were rescued by another ferry and a Coast Guard boat, while many of the 35 crew remained onboard the Vincenzo Florio della Tirrenia to help firefighters battle the blaze.
Five people, including a pregnant woman, were taken to hospital suffering from shock but nobody else was hurt.
The fire reportedly broke out at around 3.16 local time (1.16 GMT), when the ferry was 25 miles off Palermo.
Despite efforts to put out the blaze, the flames spread and by 6 AM the captain decided to evacuate the ship.
''They woke us up in our beds at about 4 AM, told us there was a fire and took us onto the deck,'' said a television comic, Sergio Friscia, who was onboard the ferry.
''At first things seemed under control and the ship carried on, but after an hour it stopped again. There was smoke everywhere and it was difficult to breathe, so the captain ordered everyone into the lifeboats,'' he said.
Another passenger, 23-year-old Alessandra Basile, said passengers began to panic when they saw flames.
''We thought we were going to die,'' she said.
There were 65 children on board the ferry including a group of around 30 ten-year-old school children, accompanied by parents and teachers, who were on a school trip.
''It was a bit frightening,'' said Anna Chiara, one of the children. ''But we were also quite excited because we didn't imagine we'd be having an adventure like that. The crew and our parents reassured us. The bad thing is that we don't have any of our things with us: we had to leave our suitcases on the ferry''.
Friscia also praised the ship's crew, who got the passengers safely into the lifeboats.
''They were fantastic because they helped us to keep calm despite the drama of the moment,'' he added.
Firemen said the fire may have begun in a car or the refrigeration unit of a lorry before spreading to other vehicles on the deck and finally to the infrastructure of the ferry itself.
The ship is currently being towed to land while a fire expert is being flown in from London to investigate the cause of the blaze.
This is the second time a serious fire has broken out on the Vincenzo Florio della Tirrenia, which belongs to the Italian ferry company Tirrenia.
In 2004 one of the ship's motors caught fire, but the crew were able to extinguish the flames.