The wooden ship that was carrying a group of anxious tourists caught fire and caused them to jump overboard.
The boat caught fire off the Greek island of Rhodes on Thursday, leaving 82 passengers—including British tourists—running for their lives. The boat was only 300 yards from land.
Families and little children jumped into the water as the deck was quickly destroyed by the raging inferno within minutes.
Pictures of the incident were horrifying, showing huge flames engulfing the entire boat as thick, black smoke rose into the sky.
Some escapees swam back to shore on Stegna beach in the town of Archangelos, while others piled into rescue boats that came to their aid.
Greek coast guard officials said everyone on board was eventually brought to safety before the ruins of the destroyed ship sank.
But witnesses say many were left ‘traumatised’ by the incident which saw a nine-year-old girl and 50-year-old woman suffer minor burn injuries, according to local reports.
The child and woman were taken to hospital but doctors say their condition isn’t serious.
Shaun Williams, an aircraft engineer from St Ives, Cornwall, said he was on a boat trip with his family while on holiday when the fire broke out.
The 55-year-old said they were about half an hour into the trip when they stopped near Stegna beach, off the east coast of Rhodes, to go snorkelling.
He told MailOnline: ‘We were on the top deck and the crew started shouting but we could not understand. We then saw the smoke.
‘The crew tried to fight the fire but the boat was made of wood and the fire grew quickly.’
Mr Williams said there was ‘a lot of panic’ with families with young children on board and the captain of the boat told everyone to ‘get in the sea’ after the crew handed out life jackets.
‘We all jumped in and I would say within a minute or two the place we had been standing was fully ablaze,’ he said.
A number of boats in the area came to their rescue and took the evacuated passengers back to shore, according to Mr Williams.
He added: ‘We had no injuries but my nine-year-old son was traumatised for some time.’
Emergency services, including firefighters, were called to the scene immediately after the fire broke out.
Stunned bystanders watched on in horror from the beach, with the huge smoke clouds out at sea clearly visible.
Greece’s Central Port Authority said it would take measures to deal with the marine pollution after the boat sank.
Greek authorities confirmed that fortunately no passengers were seriously hurt and were later transferred to their hotels by bus.
Last month, at least 78 people were killed after a boat capsized with 700 people on board.