Passengers from the burning ferry between Greece and Italy relieved to be alive, 7 Bulgarians still missing

7 Bulgarians who were travelling on board the burning ferry in the Ionian Sea remain missing. 40 of the Bulgarian drivers have already returned to Bulgaria. The two Bulgarians, who are hospitalized in Greece, are in stable condition.

Most of the drivers work for a Plovdiv-based company, which arranged transportation to their hometowns. The Bulgarians that were on board of the burning ferry said they were scared but relieved to be alive and see their families.

They broke down the door and crew members came in and told us to wake up because the ship was burning... They told us to put the life jackets on and left us up on the deck. There was a lot of smoke.

Can you picture...a fire horror - being surrounded and having water under your feet without knowing how deep... how would you feel - we were scared... We are glad we were saved thanks to the ship's crew. They acted very quickly, they were able to rescue us within 30-40 minutes.

During the rescue operation the last Bulgarian pulled out of the burning ferry was Alexi Penev, 64 years old. He spent more than 10 hours together with a Turkish lorry driver in a room at the back part of the ship. Access to them was impossible because of the flames. However, the rescuers got to them thanks to the information given to them by the Bulgarian side.

We parked next to each other and another colleague parked on the other side and he was stuck, unable to open the door to get out and we offered him to move the lorry forward so he could get out, however he subsequently decided he would stay in the lorry. Apparently the man fell asleep. When he woke up we were already in Corfu, on the island, when we were rescued and I rang him on the phone. I ask him where he was and he said “ where you left me, I'm in the lorry”... We rang him again a few hours later and he had difficulties speaking, because of the smoke. My colleague and I phoned the captain, made contact with the head of the special operation there on the spot so they knew exactly where he was in the ship, so that they could help him. According to the latest information, he was rescued and in hospital, without danger to life, said Angel Vachkov.

"We kept in touch with him by phone. He says the colleague gave up, apparently it was really very scary. They were in a room where the outside air was coming in, the authorities themselves had undertaken to pour water to lower the temperature and they were worried about water coming in to them, they thought the ship was sinking, but it was good that we kept in touch with the driver and informed him what was being done," said Ilian Filipov, owner of the haulage company.

There is not information about two of the employees of the Plovdiv-based haulage company.

Two people are still missing. One from Plovdiv, the other from Razlog. The latest information is that they got on a helicopter yesterday, that is what we know from our other drivers. We have no more information, said Dimitar Arabadzhiev, owner of the company.

The Bulgarian citizens have received support from the institutions for their transportation from Greece.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assisting them in all possible ways, including for their smooth passage and return to the country, as some of them are without documents, because were burnt during the fire on board of the ship, said Velislava Petrova, deputy foreign minister.

People who are left without ID documents will cross the border with their ticket from the ferry.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 7 Bulgarians still missing after the ferry fire near Corfu island

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