Athens: Desperate passengers have used mobile phones to plead live on television to be saved from a burning ferry off the Greek island of Corfu.

But officials say the rescue has been made difficult and dangerous by winds of up to almost 90 kilometres per hour, and the crew has so far only managed to get 156 of the 478 people who are trapped on the smoke-filled top decks. Officials confirmed one person has died while attempting to escape and another has been injured. An official said 150 people had managed to get off the ship aboard a rescue boat earlier in the day.

Among those rescued were two toddlers aged two and three who were winched to safety by helicopter together with their pregnant mother and taken to a hospital in Galatina on the Italian mainland, London's Telegraph reported.

Freezing passengers who remained onboard were huddled on the top deck and bridge of the ship told of their terror in phone calls to Greek television stations.