Capsized
A passenger ferry capsized and sank off Northern Cyprus on Sunday, killing at least eight people and leaving more than a dozen missing, as police took the captain and seven crew members into custody. Several rescued passengers told local media a blast had gone off at the bow of the ferry before it rolled over, and said the boat had an insufficient supply of life vests.
The vessel capsized 6.5 kilometres off the coast of Cyprus, shortly after leaving a Northern Cyprus port bound for Turkey's mainland. Images broadcast by Turkish television showed the upside-down ferry in the water, with people wearing life vests atop its orange hull. "Some people had to jump without lifebuoys or life jackets," one young man, Efe Multici, told CNN Turk. "It was literally a fight for survival."
The ferry had been carrying a total of 267 people, according to authorities, of which 161 were rescued and taken to hospital and 76 have returned home. The official Cypriot news agency TAS said 17 were missing.
Captain arrested
Unal Ustel, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, said the ship's captain and seven crew members had been arrested. The transport minister said the ferry had "completely sunk to a depth of 514 metres". "Efforts to find the missing are continuing tirelessly," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a public ceremony.
One rescued passenger told local television: "The front part exploded, they tried to turn around. And the side windows blew out. The boat started taking on water." He said he spent an hour and a half in the water before being rescued, and that many people had been inside the ferry when it started taking on water. "Those who could, got out," he said, adding that he saw the captain among the first to abandon ship "without organising anything."
The ferry had departed from the Northern Cyprus port of Kyrenia, heading to the Turkish port of Tasucu. Six Turkish navy ships were dispatched for the rescue operation.