Helicopters defied high winds and stormy seas Monday to evacuate hundreds of passengers and staff from Greek ferry that caught fire off Albania. Five people died and survivors told of a frantic rush to escape the flames and pelting rain. The evacuation was completed in the early afternoon and only the vessel's captain and four Italian sailors remained on board to try to hook the ferry up to a tug boat, AP quoted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as saying. The navy said the latest numbers indicate 414 people have been rescued from the ferry, and five bodies removed. The dead included a Greek man who died after becoming trapped in a lifeboat chute and four others whose bodies were recovered from the sea Monday, the Greek Coast Guard said. Exhausted and cold from their ordeal, 49 passengers reached land Monday in the southern Italian port of Bari, more than 24 hours after fire broke out on a car deck of the ferry making a journey from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy.
