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Survivors recall terror and panic as ferry capsizes off northern Cyprus, killing eight
Survivors of a ferry disaster off northern Cyprus described scenes of panic and terror as the vessel capsized on Sunday, killing eight people and leaving 18 missing. Investigators have launched a probe and detained the ship's crew as rescue teams continue to search.
By Tertius News AI Desk2 distinct · 4 mastheads · 4 articlesVersion 1Coverage Published
Survivors describe chaotic escape from sinking ferry
Survivors of a ferry disaster off the coast of northern Cyprus that killed eight people described on Monday the moments of terror as they scrambled to escape the sinking vessel. The passengers spoke as rescue teams searched for 18 people missing since the ship carrying 267 passengers and crew capsized after leaving Kyrenia, a port in breakaway northern Cyprus, for Tasucu in Turkey on Sunday afternoon.
Serkan Kunduraci, who escaped the sinking ferry by hauling himself through a broken window, said he saw children and others drowning in the sea some 5 kilometers (4 nautical miles) off the Cypriot coast.
"I saw some who didn't know how to swim die in the sea," he told the DHA news agency. "There were those who, in a panic, didn't grab life jackets. Some jumped (into the sea) immediately out of fear. There was an old man, we couldn't get him. We tried to pull him up, but we couldn't. He drowned too."
"We saw and witnessed a family's children, boys and girls, very young children, drowning," he added.
Survivors told how the ferry began listing and taking on water after they heard a number of loud noises from below decks. Kunduraci said the crew came, took a look and told them there wasn't a major problem, just a loose gasket causing a leak. When the order to evacuate came, he added, people were already panicking. He said the ship began tilting as the captain apparently made an effort to return to Kyrenia, known as Girne in Turkish.
"There was so much screaming and so many people were trapped behind — they had been left in the rear," Kunduraci said. "They couldn't get out. There were bodies and people piled on top of them. Those trapped underneath were the unlucky ones, they stayed down there."
Deniz Ozpolat also recalled the sense of panic onboard the ferry, which was owned by Filo Denizcilik.
"We headed toward the exit. A crush of people had already formed. We couldn't find the life jackets. They shut the doors on us and we couldn't get out," he told DHA. He said the doors were opened later and they jumped into the water.
Rescue efforts and official response
Muhammed Ozcelik, who runs a water sports company, said his boat was one of the first on the scene and began hauling people from the sea. He described taking on far more passengers than capacity and said people were fighting for their lives. Images in Turkish media showed passengers in orange life vests standing on the upturned ferry as they waited for rescue.
Unal Ustel, the prime minister of northern Cyprus, said late Sunday that an investigation was launched and the ferry's eight crew were taken into custody. He said every aspect of the incident would be investigated and whoever is found to be at fault or responsible will not be spared. He described the incident as the worst maritime disaster in Cypriot history. The Turkish coast guard and military were assisting rescue teams from north Cyprus, Ustel added.
Background
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974, and Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983. The north is recognized only by Turkey, which maintains more than 35,000 troops there.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: The headline emphasizes the ongoing crisis, highlighting the panic and the number of missing people. — sympathetic and alarmed
Facts Included:
The ferry capsized on Sunday afternoon after leaving Kyrenia in breakaway northern Cyprus for Tasucu in Turkiye.
The ship was carrying 267 passengers and crew.
Eight people were killed and 18 remained missing.
Passengers said the ferry began listing and taking in water after loud noises were heard from below decks.
Serkan Kunduraci, who escaped through a broken window, said he saw people dying in the water.
Kunduraci said crew members checked the situation after the noises were heard and told passengers that there was no major problem, only a loose gasket causing a leak.
Another survivor, Deniz Ozpolat, said they couldn't find life jackets and doors were shut on them.
The ferry was owned by Filo Denizcilik.
Muhammed Ozcelik, who runs a water sports company, was among the first rescuers to reach the scene.
Authorities in northern Cyprus said an investigation had been launched and the vessel's eight crew members had been taken into custody.
Serkan Kunduraci said he saw people dying in the water and recounted a scene of panic.
Serkan Kunduraci told DHA news agency about the incident.
Deniz Ozpolat told DHA news agency about the chaos on board.
The disaster was described as the worst maritime disaster in northern Cyprus's history by Unal Ustel.
Cyprus has remained divided since 1974, and Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983.
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimA ferry disaster off the coast of northern Cyprus killed eight people.
ClaimUnal Ustel, the prime minister of northern Cyprus, said late Sunday that an investigation was launched and the ferry's eight crew were taken into custody.