http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/world/europe/ferry-death-toll-rises-to-13-amid-concerns-about-uncounted-stowaways.html 2014-12-30 19:54:29 Ferry Death Toll Rises to 13, Amid Concerns About Uncounted Stowaways The ship that caught fire off the Greek coast on Sunday was being towed to Italy, where authorities were trying to determine how many people had boarded and how many had been rescued. === VERBANIA, Italy — The death toll in a ferry fire off the Greek coast rose to 13 on Tuesday, including two Albanian workers who died while trying to connect a cable to the stricken ship. But prosecutors said that the number could rise amid fears that passengers who boarded illegally might have been trapped in the hold, where the fire raged most fiercely. Exhausted passengers from the ferry, the Norman Atlantic, continued to arrive by ship at various Mediterranean ports on Tuesday, but the authorities were unable to say with certainty how many people had been rescued in a 30-hour-plus operation that involved ships, planes and helicopters from Giuseppe Volpe, the prosecutor in Bari, Italy, whose office was given jurisdiction over the criminal investigation into Sunday’s fire, said the discovery of at least three stowaways — two Afghans and a Syrian — among the survivors suggested that there could be others who boarded illegally. “The ship was transporting stowaways, hidden in the hold,” Mr. Volpe said at a news conference in Bari. “Our fear is that once we have recovered the wreck we will find other dead people on board.” It remained unclear how many passengers had been on the boat, and how many were rescued. Mr. Volpe said as many as 499 people may have been on board, not including any possible stowaways, but his office could only verify those who were rescued by Italian ships. The count was complicated after survivors were distributed among various vessels flying different national flags. Mr. Volpe said his figures indicated that 179 people remained unaccounted for, but he said he hoped those passengers were on ships that had taken survivors to Greece. An Italian Navy ship remained in the waters off the Albanian coast to continue to look for bodies. The Italian Navy said Tuesday evening that the San Giorgio, a military ship carrying the highest number of survivors, was arriving in the harbor in Brindisi, Italy. Mr. Volpe’s office, in conjunction with Albanian authorities, on Tuesday took legal custody of the Norman Atlantic, which will be towed to Brindisi. There, investigators will search the ship for evidence of other stowaways and try to determine the cause of the fire, which began early Sunday morning after the ferry left a Greek port en route to Ancona, Italy. Both the ship’s commander and owner are under investigation. Mr. Volpe said that law enforcement officers had already interviewed dozens of passengers, and that cellphone images taken onboard would be examined as part of the investigation. Survivors interviewed by the Italian news media described confusion and fear onboard, and braving cold winds and high waves as they waited for helicopters to pluck them from the burning ship. The Norman Atlantic flies an Italian flag but had been leased by a Greek company, with crew members from both countries.