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Bulk carrier sinks off South Africa, 27 missing
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Bulk carrier sinks off South Africa, 27 missing
Rescue teams searched yesterday for 27 crew members missing after a bulk carrier ferrying iron ore from Brazil to China sank in rough seas off South Africa’s eastern coast.
Six of the ship’s 33 crew were rescued unharmed on Wednesday night shortly after the vessel, identified as the Alexandros T, went down off Port Alfred after taking on water in strong winds, rescue officials said.
“From what we understand, it started to list to one side and started to break up in half before sinking,” Paul Killeen, deputy sea rescue commander at nearby Port Elizabeth, told Reuters by telephone. “One crew member was rescued from the sea, and five others from a life raft, the rest of the crew have not been seen. The missing 27 crew were all wearing life jackets,” he said. A spokesman for the ship’s owners said most of the crew members were Filipino.
A South African military plane was scrambled to the scene of the sinking, 285 miles (458 km) offshore, to join nearby ships in the rescue effort. A Canadian rescue helicopter in the vicinity was placed on alert.
Killeen said a military airplane was currently circling the area where the ship went down to help coordinate the ongoing rescue operation. The aircraft had spotted life rafts in the sea and was directing the rescue ships towards them, he said.
Mark Hellenberg, a rescue coordinator with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, said the Alexandros T had sent a distress signal at around 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).
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