7 missing after ship sinks off Turkey’s Zonguldak

Turkish Coast Guard boats were searching for seven crew members after a Cambodia-flagged freighter ship sank in stormy seas off Turkey's Black Sea coast province of Zonguldak on Tuesday, officials said. Four other crew members were rescued, Today's Zaman reported. Gov. Erol Ayyıldız said the Cambodia-flagged ship was sailing to Turkey's Aliaga port from Russia when it sank off the coast of Eregli on Tuesday. Ayyıldız initially said 10 crew were missing and that they were Polish nationals. But the Maritime Affairs Directorate later said there were 10 Ukrainians and one Georgian crew aboard the ship, which was carrying scrap metal. Those rescued were the ship's second and third captains, the directorate said in a statement. At least three tug boats had joined the search-and-rescue effort, it added. Turkish TV channels later said one more crew member was also rescued and taken to hospital and coast guards and police were still searching for the eight others. "By the time the Coast Guard arrived in response to the distress call, the ship had already sunk," İrfan Erdem, head of the Chamber of Commerce for the region, told Turkey's NTV television. He said a storm likely caused the ship's cargo to shift, tilting the vessel to the side and causing it to take on water. Turkey has been hit by extreme weather and snow storms over the past week. There were gale warnings on Tuesday for parts of the Marmara, Black Sea and Aegean, a shipping agent said. The Bosphorus Straits, a key shipping route passing through the city of İstanbul, was closed to all vessels on Tuesday due to poor visibility caused by a snowstorm, coast guard officials said.