At least eight dead in the shipwreck of a ferry with 267 people off the coast of Cyprus

BarcelonaTurkish Cypriot authorities have arrested the captain and the other seven crew members of the ferry that sank on Sunday off the coast of northern Cyprus, in a shipwreck that caused the deaths of at least eight people, according to the Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister, Ünal Üstel.

"We are facing a tragic accident that will go down in history as the most serious maritime disaster ever to have befallen Cyprus," declared the leader: the high-speed vessel carried 267 people on board, including passengers and crew. According to the authorities of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), there are 17 people missing. More than 200 people have been rescued alive, an indeterminate number of whom with injuries of varying severity.

The Filojet, a 40.5-meter catamaran owned by the Turkish company Filo Denizcilik, had set sail from the port of Girne –Kyrenia, in Greek– bound for Turkey when it encountered a strong storm. The crew issued a distress call at 12:10 local time to report that the ship, then located about three miles off the northern coast of Cyprus, had a water ingress. Although rescue operations began immediately with the deployment of four Coast Guard boats, two helicopters, a patrol boat, an assault boat, and diving teams from Civil Protection and the police, the ship ended up capsizing and sinking.

In the last few hours, two planes, four helicopters, four unmanned aerial vehicles, and four Coast Guard vessels deployed by the Turkish armed forces have been added to these tasks, as detailed by the prime minister. In addition, the arrival of a search and rescue ship from the Turkish naval forces, capable of tracking at depths of up to 1,000 meters, is expected. The vessel was completely submerged in an area where the sea is about 500 meters deep, and there are fears that people may still be trapped inside.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 following a Turkish military invasion. The Republic of Cyprus, predominantly Greek Cypriot and a member of the European Union, controls the south, while the north is occupied by the TRNC, an entity recognized only by Ankara.