Heavy seas

Freighter sinks off Turkey: six missing

(Bild: twitter.com/T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı (Screenshot))

A 69-metre-long freighter sank off the coast of the Turkish province of Bursa in the early hours of Thursday morning. Rescue teams have since been searching for six missing crew members in the Sea of Marmara.

The coast guard has dispatched rescue boats and an airplane to find the ship's crew, reported Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on X (formerly Twitter, see post below). According to the state news agency Anadolu, the missing crew members are Turkish nationals. However, only an empty life raft was discovered in the area during the search and rescue operations, writes Yerlikaya.

The ship, loaded with marble powder, was on its way from Marmara Island to a port in Bursa, wrote the governor of the province, Mahmut Demirtas, on X. The freighter Batuhan A sank in "severe weather and sea conditions" at around 6.20 a.m. local time.

Severe storms in parts of Turkey
Severe storms are currently keeping parts of Turkey on tenterhooks. At least one person was killed in flooding in the city of Antalya on Wednesday. Heavy rainfall triggered torrents and floods that destroyed roads and bridges. Cars and other vehicles were washed away. The Turkish weather service warned of heavy rain in the Marmara region until Friday.

In the course of the search and rescue operations, however, only an empty life raft (picture) was discovered in the area.(Bild: twitter.com/T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı (Screenshot))

It was only in November that a ship and its crew members sank close to the coast in Zonguldak, Turkey. According to the Anadolu news agency, seven of the people are still missing.