A passenger boat carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members capsized off northern Cyprus after it began taking on water near Kyrenia Port, and search and rescue teams were still working to find the missing late Sunday. The Turkish Interior Ministry said the vessel was in danger of sinking about 4 nautical miles off the port when the operation began.
By the time officials gave their latest count, 237 people had been rescued, seven had died and 23 were still missing. Ünal Üstel said the teams were mobilized without interruption and that all available resources were being used as the Northern Cyprus passenger ship rescue continued.
The numbers also point to how large the scene was: 259 passengers and eight crew members add up to 267 people on board, the figure Üstel used in describing the disaster. That total leaves little room for error in a rescue effort spread across open water, where every person recovered or still unaccounted for changes the scale of the response.
The cause of the flooding was not explained, and that remains the central unanswered piece of the case. Murat Senkul said the situation was very serious, while the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is controlled by Turkey and only recognised by Turkey, was the setting for a maritime emergency that unfolded off northern Cyprus near Kyrenia Port and Girne.
For now, the count that matters most is the one still moving: 23 people remain missing, and the search is continuing without interruption.
