Turkish shipwreck
February 1, 2012
Rescue officials have said a team of divers will search the wreck of cargo ship that sank in a storm off Turkey's Black Sea coast.
Eight crew members were still missing after the Cambodian-registered freighter went down on Tuesday evening, on its way to the western Turkish port of Aliaga. The Turkish coast guard rescued three people from the ship, which had a crew of 10 Ukrainians and one Georgian.
Tugboats and a helicopter were expected to join the search on Wednesday.
"We still have hopes of saving eight people,” Erol Ayyildiz, the governor of the province of Zonguldak, told the Anatolia news agency “We are dealing with people used to the sea, they have experience in this kind of situation."
Rescue divers hope to find survivors trapped in the wreckage of the 114-meter (374-foot) ship, which was carrying scrap metal from the Russian port of Rostov.
All three rescued sailors – the second- and third-in-command and the ship's cook – were reported to be in good health.
cmk/mz (AP, AFP)