Two sailors from Albania have died while attempting to tow the car ferry which caught fire off the coast of Corfu.

A cable between their tugboat and the Norman Atlantic snapped - getting caught in a propeller.

Some 10 people were killed and more than 400 were rescued after the Norman Atlantic caught fire during a crossing from Greece to Italy.

Efforts are continuing to find more than 40 passengers still unaccounted for.

The passengers and crew members were forced to spend hours being lashed by driving rain, hail and high winds as they huddled on the top deck while trying to avoid the flames and smoke coming from one of the car decks.

Italy has opened a criminal investigation into the disaster. It will focus on how the fire started and how it was able to spread.

Survivors have spoken of their experiences throughout the overnight ordeal.

British showjumper Nick Channing-Williams said he was woken at about 5am by a fire alarm.

He said: "By the time we got out on deck the flames were huge. A lot of the cars were on fire. It was actually just very scary to be honest."

"There was only one place you could stand which was in the rain. So you spend from 5 o'clock in the morning and over the rest of the day...and in the evening it was even worse. The ship was slipping to one side as well, which isn't the easiest situation to be in."

The 37-year-old said a photo of him taken after his rescue that appeared to show him covered in soot was actually caused by grease after he climbed down a rope to try to help a rescue tug get closer to the ferry.

"Our feet were burning"

He said: "We ended up climbing down the ropes to try to help the tug onto the boat. We ended up with three attempts and after the third time of the rope snapping on us that was when we gave up."

"We ended up climbing back up the rope through one of the windows of the ferry and got back up to where they were evacuating with the helicopter."

Greek truck driver Christos Perlis (32) said: "Our feet were burning and from the feet up we were soaked. Everyone there was trampling on each other to get onto the helicopter."

"First children, then women and then men. But the men, they started hitting us so they could get on first. They didn't take into consideration the women or the children, nothing."

Turkish passenger Saadet Bayhan reinforced the picture of panic, telling Turkey's NTV television: "We experienced the Titanic. The only thing missing was that we didn't sink."

A Turkish man, who gave his name only as Demir, said: "The only thing they said was 'Fire! Fire! Fire!', and we didn't know why there was a fire. Yes, there was a fire but there was not enough time, and there was little we could do. In five minutes the whole ship was on fire."

This video from the Italian coastguard shows the boat adrift:

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