Two survivors rescued from sunken ship off Bulgarian coast

29/09/2008

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- A Belgian yacht rescued two Ukrainian sailors from a freighter that sank in Bulgarian waters off the Black Sea coast on Sunday (September 28th). The Belgians spotted the pair floating on a life raft near the Bulgarian town of Tsarevo, the transport ministry said. Eight other crew members onboard remain missing. The Ukrainian ship Tolstoy, sailing under a North Korean flag, sank in the Black Sea off Cape Emine on Saturday. Its crew included nine Ukrainians and a Russian captain. The ship was carrying scrap metal from Russia to the Turkish port of Nemrut.

In other news, a Georgian-flagged freighter sank off Turkey's northwestern province of Kocaeli on Saturday. The ship hit rocks in a heavy storm off the town of Kandira. Turkish coastguardsmen managed to save all 13 crew members. (BNT, BNR, Novinite.com, Sofia Echo, RIA Novosti, Reuters, AP - 28/09/08; Hurriyet, Anadolu news agency - 27/09/08)