A ferry carrying 95 passengers and crew sank near Turkey's northwest port of Bandirma overnight, killing one person, the maritime authority said today. Four people are missing.
Fishermen joined rescue operations when the roll-on roll-off ferry, loaded with 73 trucks and two cars, went down in the Sea of Marmara shortly after leaving Bandirma for Istanbul.
Passengers said the ship sank in about 15 minutes and that many of those on board were asleep in their vehicles when it began to go down.
"There is one dead, four missing and 90 rescued," Maritime Transport General Manager Ozkan Poyraz told Reuters. More than 30 of 89 injured were being treated in hospitals.
The Hayat N vessel had 27 crew on board.
Officials said the cause of the sinking was not immediately known, but that the ferry began leaning to one side as it pulled out of the port.
"The ship was rocking back and forth, to the left then to the right, then finally sunk, completely sunk," one survivor told CNNTurk television.
Reuters