Cyprus Ferry Toll Reaches Eight; Crew Detained

Eight dead, the missing count unsettled

Eight people are confirmed dead and search teams are still looking for close to 20 after a passenger ferry capsized and sank off northern Cyprus on Sunday, in what the territory's prime minister called the worst maritime disaster in Cypriot history.

Twelve-thirty out of Kyrenia, and it never made the crossing

The privately owned vessel, operated by Filo Denizcilik, left the port of Kyrenia at 12:30 p.m. local time bound for the Turkish port of Tasucu and began taking on water almost immediately, authorities said. It went over roughly 7.5 kilometers — about four nautical miles — off the coast.

Survivors described the two-hulled catamaran slamming repeatedly into the water before the bow gave way. "The vessel had been moving very badly. It was constantly lifting out of the water and slamming back down. It was shaking violently," survivor Efe Multici told CNN Turk. "Three or four minutes later, the ferry leapt high into the air, then came crashing down. The front left side burst open and water started pouring in."

By late afternoon the ship had settled on the seabed at 514 meters — about 1,686 feet — which is complicating the search. Turkish divers were joining it, along with Turkish Cypriot and Turkish coast guard vessels and two helicopters.

"The crew came, took a look and told us there wasn't a major problem"

Serkan Kunduraci, who got out through a broken window, told the DHA news agency that passengers heard loud noises from below decks before the listing started. "The crew came, took a look and told us there wasn't a major problem, just a loose gasket causing a leak," he said.

By the time the order to evacuate came, he said, people were panicking and the ship was tilting as the captain appeared to try to turn back toward Kyrenia. "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." He said he watched people drown, including an elderly man he and others could not pull up and the young children of one family.

Another survivor, Deniz Ozpolat, told DHA that passengers could not find life jackets and that doors were shut on them before being opened again: "We jumped into the water. The ship began to sink after listing to the side. We broke the windows and rescued people."

Muhammed Ozcelik, who runs a water sports company and whose boat was among the first on the scene, said he took on more people than his vessel was rated for. "People were saying, 'Take me too, take me too,' but the capacity was full," he told DHA. "People were fighting for their lives."