Ninth body recovered from ferry wreck off Kyrenia as search continues

Kyrenia, Cyprus. Rescuers searching the wreck of a ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia on Sunday recovered a ninth body, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Wednesday evening. Twenty people remained unaccounted for, while three survivors were still receiving hospital treatment.

Identification efforts

Ustel, accompanied by six cabinet members, announced the recovery to families waiting outside Kyrenia’s new port. Relatives of those still missing had been waiting at the site for four consecutive days.

Unlike previous visits by officials, which had been marked by heightened voices and tensions, the announcement was met with silence by the scores of people gathered outside the port.

Dozens of police officers were also deployed, filing out of the port to stand guard during Ustel’s statement.

The recovered body appeared to belong to a man in his 50s and was sent to the morgue at Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital in northern Nicosia for identification. Ustel said identification procedures would begin on Wednesday night.

Search operations

Eight people had previously been confirmed dead following the shipwreck. Ustel said search-and-rescue operations would continue “24/7”.

Two Turkish deep-sea rescue vessels, the TCG Isin and the TCG Alemdar, have been operating off Kyrenia alongside other maritime and aerial resources since Sunday.

Ustel said visibility at the wreck, located 550 metres below the sea surface, was “very limited”. Operations were being carried out using robotic systems equipped with lights to examine the ferry.

Asked whether rescuers had seen any other bodies, Ustel said, “no other findings have been encountered so far”.

Survivors

Earlier, the Turkish Cypriot ‘health ministry’ said three people who reached shore alive after the ferry sank remained in hospital.