SOFIA — A search is underway in the Black Sea for the crew of a cargo ship that sank after being attacked by drones off Bulgaria early on Tuesday.
Sea and aerial drones hit two commercial vessels at about 3 am local time (23:00 GMT), around 70 nautical miles east of the town of Byala in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
Radev did not say who was behind the attacks, which come as Russia intensifies strikes in the Black Sea, particularly the eastern side, as part of its war against Ukraine.
Moscow has not commented on the latest incident, a day after it was accused by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of striking a civilian vessel carrying corn.
The crew of the Bulgarian ferry Dioscuria, which was in the area, saw an explosion on the first ship and sailed to the scene, Radev confirmed. They found an overturned lifeboat and life jackets but no one from the crew.
Officials have not said how many people were on board.
The second ship caught fire and all 18 of its crew were rescued by the Dioscuria. Eleven are Turkish and seven Indian, according to the televised address from Radev.
Two of them were hospitalised, one with burns and one with a head injury. The other 16 were being brought ashore on a Border Police patrol boat.
Two helicopters had been sent to Varna to pick up rescue teams and a Su-25 aircraft would carry out aerial reconnaissance over the area. The operation is being run by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.
Both vessels sent distress signals during the night and one disappeared from Border Police radar at about 9 am local time, public broadcaster BNR reported.
Bulgarian shipping news site Maritime.bg named the sunken ship as the Alfa Watan and the second as the Palau-flagged Able. It said the strikes were the first attack on shipping in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone.
Both vessels are Turkish-owned, according to the Equasis merchant shipping database.
Ship tracking website vesselfinder.com shows the Alfa Watan was sailing under the flag of Togo and was headed for the Romanian port of Sulina.
The second ship was carrying wheat and sailing south, Radev said. The cargo of the sunken Alfa Watan is not yet known.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the developments “concerning”.
“The situation in the Black Sea is increasingly concerning,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
“Commercial ships – and innocent crews – are being targeted, with lives already lost at sea,” she said. “While exact circumstances of these incidents are still being established, the developments are very concerning.”
The incident occurred a day after a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying grain in the Black Sea was attacked by at least one drone and sank after catching fire.
Source: Saudi Gazette