A 53-year-old Turkish general cargo ship sank in stormy seas this morning in the Sea of Marmara off Bursa Karacabey.
An operation to save the six Turkish crewmembers of the 1,090 dwt Batuhan A onboard is underway.
The Turkish Coast Guard dispatched two Coast Guard ships and two Coast Guard boats to the scene of the incident. Simultaneously, two tugboats were assigned to the region by the General Directorate of Coastal Safety.
The search and rescue activities recovered one empty life raft in the area where the ship was considered to have sunk.
A Coast Guard corvette and an aircraft were assigned to arrive in the region to support search and rescue efforts. A helicopter could not arrive in the region due to adverse weather conditions but is ready to be dispatched if the weather conditions allow. The Turkish Coast Guard added that the search and rescue activities were still underway.
The laden Batuhan A departed from Marmara Island bound for Gemlik around 8 p.m. the previous evening when it encountered bad weather with waves reported to be around 3 m high.
