TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Two Albanian tugboat sailors died Tuesday during operations to secure a Greek ferry adrift for three days since a fire broke out on a car deck, with 10 people killed in the ensuing chaos. 
 
 In this image released by the Italian Navy, smoke billows from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014. Fighting high winds and stormy seas, helicopter... (Associated Press) 
 
 The sailors were apparently hit by a line that they had been trying to attach to the crippled, fire-blackened Norman Atlantic, said Dionis Dulaj, the police spokesman in the Albanian port town of Vlore, closest to where the 186-meter (610-foot) -long ferry has been drifting. 
 
 Defense Ministry spokeswoman Edlira Prendi announced the deaths. One man had quickly been confirmed dead while a medical team had worked on the second but could not save him. 
 
 A Dutch salvage company, Rotterdam-based Smit Salvage, was overseeing the operations to secure the Norman Atlantic after completion Monday of the rescue of 427 people, including 56 crew. One lifeboat was deployed, but most of those on the ferry were transported by helicopters to safety in an all-night operation amid high winds and pelting rains. 
 
 Martijn Schuttevaer, a spokesman for Smit's parent company Royal Boskalis Smit, said one line was connected by early Tuesday and that the priority was to get a heavier tow line connection, aided by the arrival of larger tugs. It was not clear if that was the operation underway when the Albanian sailors were struck. 
 
 Schuttevaer said crews were also going through the vessel to extinguish any remaining fire. "There is still smoke," he said. 
 
 No decision has yet been made on where to bring the vessel. 
 
 The Italian Navy, meanwhile, says the search for possible missing passengers from the Greek ferry fire is continuing. Authorities say discrepancies in the ferry's manifest make it impossible to know how many people, if any, may still be missing. 
 
 A ship carrying 39 survivors was headed to the southern Italian port of Manfredonia, but a town official told Sky TG24 that it may be diverted further north due to the weather. The survivors include five children and three people who are injured. 
 
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 Barry reported from Milan. Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos contributed from Athens, Greece. ||||| BARI, Italy (AP) — Helicopters defied high winds, stormy seas and darkness Monday to pluck hundreds of passengers from a Greek ferry that caught fire off Albania, as survivors told of a frantic rush to escape the flames and pelting rain. Five people died and dozens remained trapped on board a day after the fire broke out. 
 
 In this image released by the Italian Navy, passengers and crew of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, are rescued from the Italian Navy ship San Giorgio, Monday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image taken from a video released by the Italian Coast Guard, smoke billows from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. Italian and Greek... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by the Italian Navy, passengers and crew are seen on the deck of the Italian-flagged ferry Norman Atlantic as it is approached by a rescue helicopter after it caught fire in the... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by the Italian Navy, passengers of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, are rescued from the Italian Navy ship San Giorgio, Monday, Dec. 29,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken from a nearby ship, smoke rises from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic after it caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. The ferry carrying hundreds of passengers... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by the Italian Navy, smoke billows from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014. A cargo ship with 49 people evacuated from... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image taken from video and released by the Italian Navy, a woman is lifted from the deck of the Italian-flagged ferry Norman Atlantic by a rescue helicopter after it caught fire in the Adriatic... (Associated Press) 
 
 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. 
 
 Fewer than 100 people remained stranded on the smoke-filled vessel adrift in frigid temperatures and rough seas near the Albanian coast. Helicopters worked night and day plucking passengers off the stricken vessel and ferrying them to 10 or so mercantile ships nearby that were summoned to help. 
 
 One Greek man died on Sunday after becoming trapped in a lifeboat chute. Greek Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said four more people were found dead on Monday. Of the 478 passengers and crew on board the ferry, 391 have been rescued so far. 
 
 A Greek truck driver, reached by The Associated Press aboard one of the rescue vessels, described the rescue scene as "a chaos, a panic." He said the fire alarm came after most passengers, alerted by smoke filling their cabins, had gone outside, and that there was no crew in sight to direct passengers. 
 
 "Our feet were burning and from the feet up we were soaked," Christos Perlis, 32, told the AP by telephone. 
 
 When rescue helicopters arrived, Perlis said passengers began to panic. 
 
 "Everyone there was trampling on each other to get onto the helicopter," said Perlis, who said he and another man tried to impose order. 
 
 "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," Perlis said. He said he reached safety after jumping in a helicopter basket carrying a girl. 
 
 Turkish passenger Saadet Bayhan, speaking to Turkey's NTV television from a rescue ship, confirmed that there were no fire alarms and that passengers woke each other up. 
 
 "We experienced the Titanic. The only thing missing was that we didn't sink," she said. 
 
 Most evacuees were to be brought to shore later after the rescue was completed, Greek officials said, but one of the cargo ships, the Spirit of Piraeus, left ahead of the pack, reaching Bari just after 7:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) Monday with 49 survivors aboard. The first to disembark was an injured man wrapped in a yellow striped blanket and wearing bandages around his bare feet, helped down the ship's ladder by two rescue workers. 
 
 Other evacuees, many wrapped in blankets, made their way gingerly down the ladder with assistance, some thrusting their hands in a victory sign as they waited their turn. Among them were four children. The evacuees then boarded bright red fire department buses. Officials have said hotels have been booked for them around town. 
 
 The fire broke out before dawn Sunday on a car deck of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, carrying 422 passengers and 56 crew members. All day and night, passengers huddled on the vessel's upper decks, pelted by rain and hail and struggling to breathe through the thick smoke. 
 
 By midday Monday, 391 people had been evacuated, leaving fewer than 100 more on board, Greek officials said. Italian Premier Matteo Renzi told an annual year-end press conference that he expected the rescue to be completed "within hours" and that there could be a discrepancy between the final number of people accounted-for and ship's manifest due to the likelihood that the ferry also carried illegal migrants. 
 
 Survivors were also taken to southern Italian hospitals in smaller numbers in the hours immediately after the rescue operation got underway. Several were treated for hypothermia, some for mild carbon monoxide poisoning and one woman suffered a fractured pelvis, officials said. 
 
 A local convent was housing survivors who were released from the hospital. 
 
 Helicopters rescued passengers throughout the night, completing 34 sorties with winds over 40 knots (75 kph; 46 mph). The Greek coast guard said seven people had been airlifted from the ferry to Corfu. 
 
 "Notwithstanding the weather and the darkness, which is another factor, we persisted throughout the entire night," Italian coast guard Admiral Giovanni Pettorino told Sky TG24. 
 
 Those remaining on board were given thermal blankets and found places to wait protected from the elements "even if the conditions remain very difficult," Pettorino said. 
 
 Italian navy Capt. Riccardo Rizzotto said the ultimate destination of the stricken ferry was unclear. Some Italian officials said it would likely be towed to an Italian port, even though it was currently closer to Albania. 
 
 "The priority now is to rescue the crew and passengers as quickly as possible," Rizzotto said. 
 
 The second injury was to a member of the Italian military involved in the rescue operation, Pettorino said. 
 
 Pettorino said two Italian tugs tried to attach themselves to the ferry in the evening, but were frustrated by the thick smoke. Eventually the tugs managed to attach the line to stabilize the ferry, ANSA reported. 
 
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 Winfield reported from Rome. Colleen Barry in Milan; Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece; Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey; Elena Becatoros, Derek Gatopoulos, Nicholas Paphitis and Demetris Nellas in Athens, Greece; and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed
– Simultaneously battling driving rain, gale-force winds, freezing temperatures, flames, and smoke, Italian and Greek rescuers have painstakingly plucked all of more than 400 passengers and crew from a blazing ferry in the Adriatic Sea, reports CNN. In the course of the daylong rescue, they came upon four more bodies from the Norman Atlantic in the water, reports the AP; two more bodies were recovered after that, bringing the death toll to seven. One man died yesterday after becoming trapped in a lifeboat chute. Passengers, who were in communication with media via telephone, described a hellish scene as they awaited an arduous rescue via helicopter: "Our feet were burning, and from the feet up we were soaked," one passenger tells the AP, adding that people were "trampling on each other to get onto the helicopter." Echoes another, per CNN: Those aboard were "dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke." Says yet another passenger, "We experienced the Titanic. The only thing missing was that we didn't sink." Some 150 passengers were able to escape in the first hours after the fire broke out on the ferry's car deck, notes CNN; subsequent lifeboats couldn't be deployed when the boat lost power, rendering the electronic arms that moved the vessels useless. Survivors, some limping or with bandaged feet, were being brought to shore in Italy. Several have been treated for hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning, notes the AP. A total of 414 people were rescued, with the captain being the last to leave. The ferry is expected to eventually be towed to Italy.