Several crew members missing after cargo ship sinks off Turkish coast

A Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo ship with 14 crew members on board has sank off Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, Turkish officials said.

Five crew members were rescued while efforts to find nine others were underway on Wednesday.

The Joe 2 sank off the coast of Kumluca, some 37 km off the coast of Antalya province, while heading to Ukraine from the Turkish port of Iskenderun, local authorities said.

The cause of the ship sinking was not immediately clear.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command said it received a distress call at 3:47 am and dispatched a vessel, several boats and two helicopters. 

Two crew members were rescued by the coast guard helicopters while three others were saved by other vessels in the area, it said.

All of the crew were Syrian nationals.

The coast guard said an investigation has been launched by the chief prosecutor’s office for Kumluca.

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