A fire broke out Sunday morning on an Italian ferry caught in bad weather off the coast of Greece, near Corfu. A rescue operation is ongoing to evacuate the 478 passengers on board including 56 crew members reported the Greek authorities.

Among the passengers included 268 Greeks, according to the Ministry of the Sea. The crew consists of 22 Italians and 34 Greeks. The Norman Atlantic had left the Greek port of Patras at 5:30 am on Sunday morning for the Italian port of Ancona, and sent a distress signal while it was 33 nautical miles (about 60 km) to the small Greek island of Othonoi.

No casualties was announced at 9:15 am, while rescue operations were conducted under conditions particularly difficult and complicated, with winds of 10 on the Beaufort Scale force with 12 degrees, rainstorms and hail, according to the ministry.

The Italian ship Europa was at the same time became head of rescue operations, said the Greek Ministry. We are trying to follow the event, tweeted the president of Italy, Matteo Renzi. We are in contact with the Greek Prime Minister Samaras and with a max of involvement of our Navy …

Several ships that responded to the Norman Atlantic distress call around him. Around 8 am, 55 people had been transferred to another ship, while 150 were in a lifeboat. The fire apparently said in the deck reserved for cars, which contains about 200 vehicles. But the heat quickly reaches the whole ship.

Our shoes started to melt in the reception booth, told Greek television Mega one of the passengers already transferred to another vessel. According to information from TGla7 newspaper, blackout aboard prevent the flooding of the last boats. A helicopter reinforcement of the Italian Navy started from Grottaglie to help rescue experiencing, the newspaper said, enormous difficulties.