Three Italians among fire-hit ferry dead

The Coast Guard gave the information via its Twitter account.

#NormanAtlantic Ci sono anche 3 italiani tra le 10 vittime

— Guardia Costiera (@guardiacostiera) December 30, 2014

Some 427 people have been rescued from the ship over the past couple of days, while 40 are still unaccounted for.

Italian coastguards have so far recovered ten bodies and two Albanian seamen have also died as a result of a tugboat accident during the salvage operation

The Italian prosecutor investigating the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster said on Tuesday he assumed more bodies would be found on he ship.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe said the fact that a number of stowaways had been among those rescued from the ferry made it "likely" that others had perished in the fire that engulfed the vessel on Sunday morning.

"It is likely that we will find other victims in the wreckage," Volpe told a press conference in the southern port of Bari.