Express Samina cleanup under way before wreck is raised

On Wednesday Shipping Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis and Paros Mayor Markos Kovaios met on the island with regional and local authority officials to discuss plans to raise the wreck of the Express Samina passenger ferry off the seabed 20 years after it sank off the island, causing the loss of 81 lives. 

The decision to lift the wreck was announced last month following reports of fresh leaks from a crack in the wreck.

In comments after the meeting, Plakiotakis said that the process of cleaning up the remnants of fuel in the wreck has already started and that preparations are under way for the ferry to be lifted out of the sea.

He did not give a timeline for the removal of the wreck from the seabed.