Norman Atlantic disaster.

The prosecutor of Bari has opened an investigation on the fire broke out on board of Norman Atlantic, the Italian ship remained for nearly 36 hours adrift in the Adriatic Sea. The first problem to solve is about the territorial jurisdiction, but most likely the Italian authorities will be competent, as the ship is Italian.

Between passengers and crew members, there were 422 people on board: 234 Greeks, 54 Turks, 44 Italians, 22 Albanians, 18 Germans, 7 Bulgarians, 9 French, 3 Dutch, 2 British, 10 Hungarians, 1 Romanian, 2 Russians, 6 Austrians,  10 Swiss, 1 Croatian, 8 Georgians, 5 Syrians, 1 Swedish, 1 Canadian, 2 Ukrainians, 1 Egyptian, 2 Afghans, 1 Maltese, 3 FYROM, 2 Iraqis.

12 people died in the accident and many passengers were admitted to Italian hospitals with symptoms of hypothermia and intoxication. Indeed, the conditions on the ship were dramatic, because in order to escape from the fire, the passengers were forced to stay more than 30 hours on the top deck, where the temperature was close to zero due to the bad weather conditions.