Eleven sailors are missing after a cargo ship sank in a drone attack off the coast of Bulgaria in the Black Sea. The incident was reported on Tuesday. It is the second deadly sinking caused by a drone attack in the area within a week. Bulgaria has summoned the Russian ambassador over it.
Bulgarian officials said two cargo ships came under drone attack on Monday night. One of them has sunk. Five sailors from the sunken ship have been rescued, but 11 more are missing.
The ship sank off the coast of the Bulgarian village of Krapets. Bulgarian media reports named it as the Azov Concord. Its Turkey-based management company could not be contacted immediately.
Bulgaria has not directly blamed Russia for the incident. But its prime minister, Rumen Radev, said the consequences of the attack serve Russia’s interests. In a televised address he said: “Another attack of this kind so close to Bulgaria’s territorial waters is completely unacceptable.” There was no immediate comment from Moscow.
Three drones also hit another ship, the Malta-flagged Chelsea Three, the same night, Bulgarian officials said. All its sailors have been rescued. Seven of them are Ukrainian and eight Azerbaijani nationals. None was seriously hurt.
A week earlier a ship sank in a drone attack in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. Nine Syrian sailors and one Egyptian went missing in that incident. Another ship was also attacked that day, but all its sailors were rescued.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report