A passenger ferry capsized and sank off Northern Cyprus on Sunday, killing at least eight people and leaving more than a dozen missing, officials and media reports said, 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 Turkiye’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.”
