10 missing as cargo ship sinks after collision off Istanbul

A Turkish cargo ship sank in the Marmara Sea near Istanbul after colliding with a second vessel, and rescuers were searching for its 10 crew members, officials said Wednesday.

The ALSU, an empty oil tanker, collided before dawn with the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo ship carrying rolled steel which sank shortly afterwards, the transport ministry's maritime directorate said on X.

"Due to the Tugberk Imamoglu not responding to any calls and the crew not answering their mobiles... it is believed the cargo ship has sunk," it said.

The collision occurred 18 nautical miles off Silivri district on the western edge of Istanbul province. Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told journalists the damaged vessel had sunk "very quickly".

"We received the emergency call at 3:26 am. If we accept the captain's reported (collision) time of 3:15, we can say the sinking occurred very rapidly, within just 11 minutes," he said.

"We spotted life buoys and a lifeboat but it was empty. Unfortunately, no survivors have been found so far."

He said there were 10 people on board: the captain and nine other crew members, all of them Turkish nationals.

The maritime directorate had earlier said the ALSU's captain had put out an emergency call at 3:41 am, saying he had "collided with an unidentified vessel around 3:15 am".

It said rescue vessels were immediately dispatched, reaching the site at 4:10 am.

The cargo ship went down in waters that were approximately 900 metres (more than half a mile) deep, the maritime directorate said. It said 14 vessels and a helicopter were involved in search and rescue efforts.

"Life-saving equipment, including a lifeboat belonging to the Tugberk Imamoglu which had 10 crew members on board, has been found at sea. Unfortunately, the crew members were not inside," it said.

The ALSU, which was not damaged in the collision, was also helping with the search and rescue efforts, it said.

What caused the collision was not immediately clear but the Tugberk Imamoglu's owner told A Haber television that the captain had repeatedly tried to warn the oncoming tanker.

"My captain was calling him, saying: 'You're coming too close'," he said tearfully, adding that the tanker did not respond, so the captain tried again.

"The sad part is that no one was notified for over 30 minutes.. Frankly, I can't understand it," he said, giving a timeline of events that mirrored that initially given by the maritime directorate.

Experts said the collision was likely down to human error.

"The Sea of Marmara is a heavily trafficked and closely monitored area, it has all the characteristics of a maritime highway," maritime engineer Sabri Gokhan told the private NTV broadcaster.

"Ships don't sink easily there. It was likely a mistake by the crew," he said.

According to the VesselFinder tracking website, the Tugberk Imamoglu is a Turkish-flagged cargo ship built in 1990 which is 90 metres (300 feet) long.

At the time of the collision, it was carrying 4,200 tons of rolled sheet metal and rebar steel reinforcements, the authorities said.

The maritime directorate initially said the ALSU was carrying 3,000 tonnes of motor oil, but later said the tanker was empty, a detail confirmed by the governorate.

Three days earlier a deadly ferry accident struck off Northern Cyprus in which eight Turkish nationals died, with rescuers still hunting for another 20 people listed as missing.

The last fatal shipwreck in the area occurred in September 2018 when a ferry that left Bandirma on the southern shores of the Sea of Marmara -- which lies between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea -- sank, leaving one person dead and four missing.