A ferry carrying 267 passengers and crew capsized off the northern coast of ethnically divided Cyprus on Sunday, killing at least eight people, as search teams continued looking for others still missing into Monday.
The double hulled ferry left the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, around 12:10 p.m. Sunday, bound for the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province. It began taking on water roughly 7.5 kilometers offshore and capsized soon after, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
Unal Ustel, the Turkish Cypriot prime minister in northern Cyprus, said the vessel encountered adverse weather and began taking on water just 15 minutes after departure, with a distress call issued shortly afterward. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman offered a different account, saying weather conditions were not bad and urging against speculation about the cause, a direct contradiction between the two officials that remained unresolved as of the latest reporting.
What We Know So Far
Casualty and rescue figures shifted considerably as the search continued. Ustel initially said 237 people had been rescued, with a search underway for 22 others. A later report from the Cyprus Mail put the number brought ashore alive at 241, with an estimated 18 people missing, after that figure had earlier been reported as 17 before rising after sunset Sunday, with officials cautioning it could climb toward 20 as more families reported missing loved ones to the Turkish embassy and Turkish Cypriot authorities. Separate estimates from search officials cited either 19 or 18 people missing as of Monday. These figures had not been reconciled into a single confirmed count as of the latest reporting.
Nineteen people remained hospitalized as of Monday, according to the Turkish Cypriot health ministry, with 10 patients at northern Nicosia’s Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital, four at northern Nicosia’s emergency hospital, four at Near East University hospital between Nicosia and Kyrenia, and one at Kyrenia’s Dr. Akcicek hospital.
The vessel sank in waters more than 500 meters deep off Diana beach, according to Erhurman, who said the depth was complicating search efforts. Video and witness accounts described the ferry jolting violently before part of its bow burst open on impact with the sea surface, with survivors left clinging to the overturned hull until rescue by passing vessels and coast guard boats. Severe storms had struck Cyprus on Saturday, with rough seas continuing into Sunday when the ferry went down. Debris, including a floating suitcase and a sheet of steel that appeared to have broken from the hull, remained scattered across the water Monday. Footage posted to social media suggested people may have still been trapped in one compartment of the vessel at the time it flipped, and it remained unclear Monday whether anyone remained trapped in the wreck now resting on the seabed.
Kyrenia Mayor Murat Senkul said the ferry belonged to the Filo Denizcilik ferry company. Authorities initially detained eight people, including the ship’s captain, according to Ustel. The Cyprus Mail later reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 16 people, with court proceedings underway at the Kyrenia district court against the captain, seven crew members and a shareholder of Filo Denizcilik.
Families Await Word on Missing Loved Ones
Ayten Bicer described losing hold of her 12-year-old daughter, Miray, as the ferry capsized, saying her daughter’s oil slicked shoes slipped from her grasp after a suitcase struck them both. “I swear, I didn’t let her go,” Bicer said. Both Miray and her 6-year-old brother, Mehmet Asaf, remained among those missing as of Monday. Ayten’s husband, Hayri Bicer, said the family had lost two of their three children in the disaster, describing the moment as sudden and beyond their ability to stop.
Dozens of families, most of them Turkish nationals, gathered outside Kyrenia’s port Monday demanding information, with some weeping quietly and others checking phones for updates. Tensions rose at one point when a vehicle with diplomatic plates attempted to leave a security building near the port entrance, prompting waiting families to block the gate. Ahmet Kaya, the Cyprus representative for Turkey’s ruling AK Party, emerged to address the crowd, saying Turkey was using every resource available in the air and at sea to continue the search, though families told him they had received little concrete information after waiting 24 hours near the port.
What Authorities Are Saying
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences and said his government was coordinating with Northern Cyprus on the search and rescue effort. “We hope we’ll be receiving positive news,” Erdogan said while speaking at a Turkish Military Academy graduation ceremony in Ankara.
Cyprus government spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis said the Republic of Cyprus had offered to assist with search and rescue efforts using all available means. “In these trying times, our thoughts are with those who lost their lives, those who were injured and all those who are living this tragedy,” Letymbiotis said.
Why This Matters
The disaster has exposed the limits of coordination in a politically complicated region. Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey invaded days after a coup backed by Greece’s military junta aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared independence in the north in 1983, a status recognized only by Turkey, which maintains more than 35,000 troops there. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but full membership benefits apply only to the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south, complicating questions of jurisdiction, accountability and international assistance in a disaster spanning both the north’s ferry route and the broader island’s waters.
The direct contradiction between Ustel’s account of adverse weather and Erhurman’s insistence that conditions were not bad raises pointed questions about what caused the ferry to founder so quickly after departure, questions that are likely to shape both the ongoing criminal proceedings against the captain and crew and broader scrutiny of ferry safety standards on a route used for several daily sea shuttle links between Cyprus and Turkey.
The families’ anger at the pace and clarity of official communication, playing out publicly outside Kyrenia’s port, underscores how disaster response failures can compound grief, particularly when casualty figures themselves remain in flux days after the sinking.
What Happens Next
Search efforts, including Turkish divers, continued Monday in waters more than 500 meters deep, a depth officials say significantly complicates recovery operations. Authorities have not given a timeline for when the search might conclude or when a final, reconciled count of the dead and missing will be available.
Court proceedings against the captain, crew members and a company shareholder are underway at the Kyrenia district court. Families continue to press Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials for more detailed and timely information as the investigation into the ferry’s sinking continues.
Reporting drawn from the Associated Press, Reuters and the Cyprus Mail
