The death toll from the passenger vessel Filo Jet that sank off the coast of Kyrenia has risen to 13, as search and rescue operations for the missing individuals continue.
Sea-news.az reports this, citing information shared by Prime Minister Unal Ustel of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) during a press conference.
According to his statement, the body of another person was recovered during the search operations, bringing the total death toll from the accident to 13, while 15 people remain missing. (Previously, the recovery of another body had raised the death toll to 12.) The wreckage of the sunken vessel is reported to lie at a depth of approximately 554 meters off the coast of Kyrenia.
To recall, the high-speed passenger ship Filo Jet, which operates passenger services between the port of Kyrenia and Turkey’s Taşucu port in Mersin, departed from Kyrenia on the afternoon of August 30. Shortly after departure, water began flooding onto the deck through the vessel’s bow section.
The ship capsized and subsequently sank as it attempted to return to the port of Kyrenia. Two Azerbaijani citizens, Valeh Hummatov and Rashad Ibrahimov, were on board at the time of the incident and were reported to have been rescued. It was also noted that the Azerbaijani citizens, alongside the ship’s captain and other crew members, were detained and brought to court as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into the disaster. The investigation to determine the exact causes of the incident is currently ongoing.
