At least eight people have died and seventeen people are missing after a ferry from Kyrenia carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. The occupied territory’s prime minister, Ünal Üstel, told the state-run TRT news channel on Sunday that 237 people had been rescued. A search was under way for those still missing.
“We have still not been able to reach seventeen people. Search and rescue teams are working very intensively to find them,” said the Turkish- Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhürman. “If there are people still inside the vessel, reaching them does not appear easy at the moment. Efforts are being made using other technologies to reach them as well.”
The ferry had “completely sunk to a depth of 514 meters,” said Erhan Arıklı, the territory’s transport minister. He also noted that search and rescue efforts are continuing intensively. He added that a fully equipped ship and divers from Turkey would arrive in the area within a few hours to conduct searches at that depth.
The catamaran-style ferry had been traveling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the breakaway northern part of occupied Cyprus, to the port of Taşucu in Mersin province, Turkey. The port area of Kyrenia is a popular tourist destination for locals and travelers alike. The private ferry was one of several daily shuttle services that link occupied northern Cyprus with Turkey.
“The worst in more than 40 years”
Mehmet Harmancı, the mayor of Turkish-held northern Nicosia spoke to The Guardian, described the disaster as the worst in the more than forty years since the territory proclaimed independence from Cyprus. “We’ve not seen anything like this before. It’s by far the worst tragedy. There are 17 people still missing. We think most of the passengers were Turks and Turkish-Cypriots,” he told The Guardian.
Hours after the ferry capsized, many details remained unclear. “We still don’t know how many have been injured or to what degree. All the injured are being brought to hospital here in [northern] Nicosia.” Kyrenia’s mayor, Murat Şenkul, said the ferry belonged to the Filo Denizcilik company and had sunk off Diana Beach. It started taking in water about 7.5 kilometers (4 nautical miles) off the coast, TRT reported.
Search continues for missing passengers after Cyprus ferry capsizes
Video footage from the scene showed people wearing life vests floating in the waters around the capsized vessel. When the ship capsized, passengers clung to its overturned hull. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation reported the boat was new and that when it began taking in water four miles from the coast, the captain had told the passengers to put on lifejackets.
Four coastguard vessels and a civilian passenger boat were deployed to the scene, along with five Turkish coastguard vessels and two helicopters, local officials said.
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