A cargo ship sank Saturday morning in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast, with all crew members reported missing, local press cited the Bulgarian Transport Ministry as saying.
The ship Tolstoy sank at about 4 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) some 12 miles off Cape Emine on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast, a spokeswoman for the ministry said.
There are ten crew members aboard the ship, nine Ukrainian and one Russian. It is said that the ship was under the flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The ship issued no SOS call and our authorities found out about the incident after 11 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) today after a signal was sent from another Black Sea country," she said, but giving no further details.
Bulgarian air force helicopters are currently searching the area for survivors. Military and commercial ships are also participating in the rescue effort.
However, rescuers have so far failed to find any survivors as stormy conditions hampered rescue operations, said Nikolay Apostolov, head of Bulgaria's Maritime Administration Agency. Rescue workers have also not found any bodies.
Efforts to save the crew will be halted for the night because of the bad weather, he said.
The ship Tolstoy left on Sep. 21 the harbor of Rostov almost full; she was carrying almost 5,000 tons of scrap, according to local Focus News Agency.
The area near Emine is most often used by ships traveling from Russia to Turkey.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article