Sunken Kyrenia ferry located by rescue teams

The passenger ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia on Sunday was located by the search-and-rescue team aboard the Turkish research vessel the TCG Isin on Tuesday afternoon, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said. “The location of an object, which is currently considered to be the sunken ship, has been determined. This object was detected at a depth of 550 metres. I repeat, it is considered that it is the sunken ship,” he said outside the new port of Kyrenia, where a crisis desk has been in operation since Sunday afternoon. He said that work to discover more about the wreckage will continue throughout the night and into the morning, and confirmed that the TCG Isin is continuing its efforts. “It also has the capacity to work at night,” he said, before stressing that the TCG Isin’s work will continue to be complemented by “uninterrupted” search and rescue efforts being carried out by teams working on the surface and in the air, with aeroplanes and helicopters continuing to circle the seas above and around Kyrenia. Related Articles • Akinci: Would ferry disaster have happened if we were in the EU? • Second deep-sea rescue vessel to arrive off Kyrenia on Wednesday • ‘My brother did not die, he was killed’ • ‘We told the captain to stop and he did not stop’ • Kyrenia ferry ‘crashed 12 years ago’, court hears • Leaders postpone meeting after ferry disaster Additionally, he confirmed that the TCG Alemdar, a second deep-sea search and rescue vessel, will arrive in the seas off Kyrenia on Wednesday. However, his statements were interrupted by Ayten Bicer, the mother of two young children who remain unaccounted for having been on the ferry with her when it sank. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman speaking to relatives on Tuesday “Why is he making statements on television at the moment? We are waiting for our children and you are making statements on television! I have been here for hours and I am covered in sweat! When are you going to tell me what happened? You need to make your statements to me!” she said. At this point, Erhurman began to tell her that “I understand your anger”, to which she quickly responded, “I am not angry”, with Erhurman then promising to then go to the tent in which the families were waiting across the road from the Turkish Cypriot security forces building. He then spent more than half an hour listening to the families, joined by ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, ‘energy minister’ Olgun Amcaoglu, ‘finance minister’ Ozdemir Berova and ‘interior minister’ Dursun Oguz, though many of the families demand that ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, too, visit the port and speak to them. Earlier in the day, Erhurman had confirmed that the TCG Alemdar is on its way to Cyprus, with the ship reportedly capable of conducting searches at depths of up to 3,000 metres beneath the surface of the sea. “The [TCG Isin] has arrived, and possesses the most advanced technology currently available in the world,” he said, before going on to say that the TCG Alemdar will “also come to provide support”, though he did stress that the search for the ferry will be a “slow process”. It is hoped that the ferry’s black box will also be brought to the surface, with conflicting reports continuing to abound regarding the circumstances which led to the ferry’s sinking. The ship’s captain, named by Arikli as 67-year-old Mustafa Oz, said in court on Monday that “waves broke the front off the boat”, but passengers who were aboard have since said that it was taking on water almost as soon as it left the port at midday on Sunday. Some said that they asked the captain to turn the boat back to Kyrenia, but that Oz refused. TCG Isin commander Ulas Cesur said he would deploy a “remote-controlled underwater device” to conduct searches. Meanwhile, search and rescue teams at the surface began to recover suitcases which were floating in the seas off Kyrenia, while a life jacket washed up on the coast at Karavostasi, near Lefka.