Prosecutors in Italy say they fear more bodies will be found aboard the crippled Greek ferry Norman Atlantic, adrift for a third day after a fire broke out on a car deck, with 10 people killed in the ensuing chaos.

Two crew members on an Albanian tugboat have died during the operation to secure the fire-hit Greek ferry from which hundreds of people were rescued and 10 people died, Albanian authorities said.

A cargo ship carrying 49 people evacuated from a Greek ferry which caught fire in the Adriatic Sea have arrived in the Italian port of Bari, the first big group to reach land.

Rescue crews battled gale-force winds and massive waves as they struggled to rescue hundreds of people trapped on a burning ferry adrift between Italy and Albania.

One person has died while attempting to escape from a blazing ferry stranded in the Adriatic Sea, and another was injured, an Italian Coast Guard official says.