Boat with around 270 people on board capsizes off North Cyprus; one dead
NICOSIA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - One person died after a boat with around 270 people on board capsized off North Cyprus on Sunday, Turkish Cypriot media reported. Turkish Cypriot Transport Minister Erhan Arikli told Anadolu that one passenger had died when the ferry capsized. He said there were 267 people on board, 259 of whom were passengers and eight of whom were crew. The privately owned ferry left…
A boat with around 270 people on board capsized off North Cyprus on Sunday. The privately owned ferry had left the North Cyprus port of Kyrenia at 12:30 p.m. local time and immediately started taking on water for an unknown reason. According to Turkish Cypriot Transport Minister Erhan Arikli, one passenger had died in the incident, with 267 people on board, including 259 passengers and eight crew.
Rescue efforts are underway, with helicopters, coastguard boats, and ambulances dispatched to the scene. Murat Senkul, the mayor of the coastal town, reported that 159 people had been reached, while 100 passengers had been taken to shore, according to Erhan Arikli. Footage shows passengers in life jackets sitting on the overturned ship as they wait to be rescued.
The incident occurred in the northern third of the island of Cyprus, controlled by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey's interior ministry reported that the passenger ship was carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members when it began taking on water, bound for Turkey.
Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, MyJoyOnline Ghana, France 24, Euronews, CBC News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
