Norman Atlantic expected at Brindisi as doubts remain about missing

The stricken Norman Atlantic ferry is expected to reach the Italian port of Brindisi on Friday as the effort to establish the exact number of passengers who were on board and how many are missing continues.

Italian authorities said on Thursday evening that the first Greek passenger to be identified as dead, Giorgos Doulis, was not among the 10 people whose bodies have been recovered following the disaster.

His name has now been added to those of the other nine Greeks who have been listed as missing.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe has ordered the Italian-owned vessel, which had been chartered by Greece’s ANEK Lines, be towed to the southern port of Brindisi so that it can be inspected for corpses and for clues as to what caused the fire.

Volpe has said he expects to find more bodies on board, notably because he suspects there were more stowaways than the three who were rescued by the Italian coast guard on Monday.

There is also a possibility that passengers who were sleeping in their cabins or truck drivers who were in their vehicles when the fire erupted did not make it out alive.