{"id":586174,"date":"2026-08-31T19:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586174\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:38:19","slug":"ferry-carrying-nearly-270-capsizes-off-north-cyprus-at-least-8-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586174\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferry carrying nearly 270 capsizes off north Cyprus, at least 8 dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least eight people have died after a ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the coast of the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus on Monday, Turkish media reported.<\/p>\n

Unal Ustel, the north’s Turkish Cypriot prime minister, told Turkish state broadcaster TRT that 237 people have so far been rescued. A search is underway for another 22 people, officials said.<\/p>\n

Ustel said the ferry faced adverse weather conditions and began taking on water just 15 minutes after departure. A call for help was issued shortly after, he said. Police detained eight people \u2014 including the ferry captain \u2014 as part of an investigation into the sinking, according to Ustel.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An ambulance arrives at the port of Kyrenia in the Turkish occupied northern part of Cyprus, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said weather conditions “were not bad” and urged against speculating about the cause of the accident. He said the vessel went down in waters 500m deep, encumbering search efforts.<\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his condolences and said his government was coordinating with Northern Cyprus in the search and rescue effort.<\/p>\n

“We hope we\u2019ll be receiving positive news,” Erdogan said in Ankara while speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Turkish Military Academy.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A survivor of a catamaran-style ferry which was capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus, arrives at the port of Kyrenia. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The catamaran-style ferry was traveling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, to the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province.<\/p>\n

Kyrenia Mayor Murat Senkul said the ship belonged to the Filo Denizcilik ferry company and sank off the coast of Diana beach on Cyprus\u2019 northern coast.<\/p>\n

The ferry started taking in water about 7.5km (4 nautical miles) off the coast, TRT reported.<\/p>\n

Video footage from the scene shows people with life-vests floating in the waters around the capsized vessel.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In this frame grab from a video, passengers wearing life jackets wait atop a capsized passenger vessel to be rescued off the coast of Girne. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkish invaded a few days after an Athens junta-backed coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, but only T\u00fcrkiye recognises the north where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.<\/p>\n

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the Greek Cypriot south \u2014 where the internationally recognized government is seated \u2014 enjoys full benefits.<\/p>\n

Cyprus government Constantinos Letymbiotis said in a post on X Sunday that the government had expressed its readiness to assist in search and rescue efforts with all available means.<\/p>\n

\"Survivors<\/p>\n

Survivors of a catamaran-style ferry which was capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus arrive at the port of Kyrenia. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

“In these trying times, our thoughts are with those who lost their lives, those who were injured and all those who are living this tragedy,” Letymbiotis said.<\/p>\n

“At such times, the protection of human life is paramount.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least eight people have died after a ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1081,2300,67,42,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-586174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-accident","tag-asia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}