OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Paros, Greece | Thursday
AT least six South Africans are known to have survived the Greek ferry disaster near the Aegean Sea island of Paros, in which the death toll has risen to 62 as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the water.
They are Charlene Cooper, Louis van Wyk, Pieter and Janet Truter, and two women identified as Mrs Olewage and Mrs Swart.
Hundreds of Greek and foreign passengers were hurled into the rough waters as the ferry Express Samina ran aground on a rocky islet offshore and sank in gale-force conditions late on Tuesday.
Authorities have detained the captain and four crew members of the ferry, who are thought to have been watching football when the ferry struck a clearly charted islet with a lighthouse.
The Merchant Marine Ministry said a total of 448 people had, but refused to give out estimates of missing people as it only had a general idea of how many people had been on the boat. Between 525 and 530 people were now thought to have been on board.
Ndumiso Ntshinga, acting deputy director-general of Foreign Affairs, warned that the passenger lists from the ferry were not yet available, and that there may have been other South Africans aboard.
“The passenger lists are quite crucial and the only way we can establish if any more of our citizens were aboard.”
The lists might also not be comprehensive as some people could have bought their tickets aboard the ferry and children under five travelled for free with their parents.
Survivors described a night of terror, clutching life vests and floating debris, and told of the heroic fishermen who came to their rescue. The passengers included Australians, Britons, Canadians, Germans, Italians and South Africans, as well as Greeks.