World News 28-09-2000 Crew Watched TV As Ferry Crashed who: 66 confirmed dead what: In Greek island ferry disaster where: Paros when: Tuesday snippet: "The captain of a Greek ferry which sank with the loss of up to 91 lives was facing murder charges last night," reports Michael Theodoulou in The Express, "amid claims that he was watching a football match on TV as his ship crashed on to rocks." "At least 100 people died," claims The Sun (although official figures were confirmed as 66 early this morning), "when the ship ploughed on to a well-lit and charted outcrop in a storm". Witnesses claim that passengers were given no help from the crew as the Express Samina went down two miles off the coast of Paros on Tuesday evening with 500 people on board. "People were just running around. They couldn`t find life jackets," says survivor 25 year-old Katrina Wallace from Hertfordshire in The Telegraph. "There were no signs, everything was dark, everyone was yelling in Greek - we couldn`t understand what was going on... People were smacking each other out of the way to get to lifeboats". The ferry has been condemned by British guidebook Greek Island Hopping as a "grimebucket", says The Express. "It warned tourists not to use the vessel because of the age worry and claims that there were too few exits." Coastguards have been told that the crew were in the ship`s bar watching a Champions League game between Panathinaikos of Athens and SV Hamburg. Captain Yanakis, his second-in-command Anastasios Psychoyos, junior officer Yannis Patilas, seaman Panayotis Kasdakis and radio chief Yannis Tsoumas have all been charged with criminal negligence causing multiple manslaughter. [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!