At least six people have lost their lives and 172 have been rescued after a catamaran-type ferry with 267 occupants sank this Sunday off the northern coast of Cyprus, near the town of Kyrenia, in the area administered by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister, Ünal Üstel, has confirmed the provisional balance of six deceased and has emphasized that "all available means" have been activated for rescue tasks. Likewise, a Crisis Management Team has been established, headed by Üstel himself, who has ordered that search and rescue operations continue without interruption, according to information released by Turkish Cypriot media.
"Our only priority right now is human lives. All state institutions, our security forces, our health personnel, and our search and rescue teams are deployed in total coordination. All necessary resources have been mobilized," the Prime Minister highlighted.
This Crisis Management Team also includes the ministers of Transport, Health, Interior, Finance, and Agriculture, in addition to the commander of the Turkish Cypriot Peace Forces, the commander of the Security Forces, the director general of the Police, and the head of the Civil Defense Organization.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Kyrenia, Murat Senkul, has warned that "the situation is very serious" and has indicated that, so far, 159 people have been located within the rescue operation.
The Ministry of the Interior of Turkey has communicated the deployment of five vessels and two helicopters from the Turkish Coast Guard, as well as six Turkish military ships, which have joined four Turkish Cypriot vessels and a passenger ship, the "Akgünler 3," also sent to the area of the disaster.
Several civilian vessels, mainly fishing boats, have also joined the rescue efforts, heading to the site of the shipwreck of the vessel, owned by the private company Filo Denizcilik. Turkish Cypriot authorities have indicated that police forces and ambulances have also been mobilized.
The Turkish Cypriot Minister of Transport, Erhan Arikli, has pointed out that the ferry started taking on water for reasons that are still unclear and ended up capsizing near Kyrenia, known as Girne among Turkish Cypriots. The captain immediately sent a distress signal.
The vessel was carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members and capsized shortly after departing from the port of Kyrenia, about two kilometers from the coast. The ferry was making the route between Kyrenia, from where it left at 12:30 on Sunday --11:30 in mainland Spain--, and the port of Tasucu, in Mersin, in southern Turkey.
Cyprus has been divided into two since 1974, when the Turkish Army occupied the northern part --36.2 percent of the territory-- after a coup d'état promoted by the military junta that ruled Greece, out of fear that the island would unite with this country.
In 1983, the Turkish Cypriot community proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Ankara, which maintains about 35,000 soldiers there. Repeated attempts sponsored by the UN for decades to reunify this eastern Mediterranean island under a bi-zonal federation have not prospered to date.