A passenger is rescued alive from the ferry that caught fire on Friday in Greece

MADRID, Feb. 20 (Royals Blue) –

A 21-year-old Belarusian citizen has been rescued alive from the ‘Euroferry Olimpia’, the boat that has been on fire since last Friday, although there are still ten more people whose whereabouts are unknown.

The survivor was transferred late on Sunday in a coastguard boat to the island of Corfu and has been hospitalized at Corfu General Hospital, reports the Greek news agency AMNA-MPA.

“That a man has managed to get out on deck and alert the coastguard despite the adverse conditions (…) gives us hope that there may be other” survivors, explained a spokesman for the Coast Guard, Nikos Alexiou, in statements to ERT public television.

Also this Sunday, the recovery of a charred body that would belong to a 58-year-old Greek truck driver who has already been identified by his relatives has been reported.

The Italian-owned ferry was carrying more than 290 passengers, 153 trucks and 32 cars. It caught fire three hours after leaving the Greek port of Igoumenitsa for Brindisi, Italy, while near Erikusa. Up to 280 people could be rescued on Friday.

The ferry has been towed to a safe area north of Corfu, but rescue operations have been hampered by high temperatures of up to 600 degrees caused by the fire and the toxic load.

Among the ten missing are seven citizens of Bulgaria, two Greeks and one Turkish who could be sleeping in their cars when the fire broke out. As of Sunday, firefighters have not been able to board the ship due to high temperatures.