Boat sinks off Lebanon coast

18/12/2009| IslamWeb

Dozens of people are missing after a cargo ship carrying 83 passengers and crew capsized in stormy weather off the northern coast of Lebanon.

At least 25 people have been rescued from the area where the Panamanian-flagged Danny Two ship sank on Thursday.

The ship was transporting cattle from Uruguay to the Syrian port of Tartous when it overturned near the Lebanese port city of Tripoli.

Rescue teams from the Lebanese navy and the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country (Unifil) rushed to the scene after the accident.

"Three maritime task force ships, one Italian and two German, were dispatched about 10 nautical miles [about 17km] off the coast of Tripoli after the Lebanese navy received a distress call from a Panamanian-flagged ship," Andrea Tenenti, a Unifil spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

"Preliminary information indicates the ship sank with 83 people aboard."

Two British helicopters from a military base in Cyprus were also aiding the rescue effort.

Rescue impeded

A rescued crew member was quoted by a Lebanese security official as saying the captain, a British national, had died.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, the Lebanese capital, said rescue efforts are still ongoing.

"The problem is the weather. Severe thunderstorms are impeding the Lebanese army's efforts to try to save as many people as possible.

"It's dark, pouring rain, and there are very strong winds. Sea waves are as high as three meters.

"[The rescue crews] are surrounded by thousands of dead cattle, and that makes it even harder for the Lebanese army and for Unifil forces that are trying to help."

Rescue officials said that they held hope of saving more people if weather conditions begin to improve.

"If the sea remains calm we hope to find more survivors," an official told AFP.

"But if the storm kicks up again then they have little chance of surviving for more than an hour in the water."

PHOTO CAPTION

A Lebanese fisherman drives his boat during sunset off the coast of Beirut in 2007.

Al-Jazeera