Seven killed and 23 missing after boat capsizes off northern Cyprus | BBC News

A passenger boat with 267 people on board has capsized off northern Cyprus. Seven people have died and a search is continuing to find 23 people who are missing. These pictures show passengers wearing life jackets standing on top

of the capsized ferry waiting for the rescuers to arrive. Well, officials now say that the ferry has completely sunk. Helicopters and coast guard boats helping to bring the 232 people rescued to the shore and authorities say some of those who were hurt, but at the moment we don't

know how serious those injuries are. We don't also yet know the nationalities of the people on board. Well, marine traffic reports that the passenger boat left the northern Cypriot port of Kyrenia at 11:58 local time.

It overturned about 2 km from the harbor. It was due to arrive in Taşucu in Turkey at 10 just before just after should I say 10 to 6 local time. The mayor of Kyrenia port said that the situation was

very serious. Ambulances have been stationed on the beach. Northern Cyprus is not an internationally recognized state, but it's controlled by Turkey following a Turkish invasion of the Mediterranean island in 1974.

The company that operates the capsized Filo Jet vessel said it was deeply saddened by the tragic accident and had mobilized resources to coordinate with search and rescue teams. Tom Cleaver is the chief reporter at the Cyprus Mail and has been monitoring the rescue operation.

>> The only thing we know is now the numbers. We know that seven people are confirmed dead and that 23 people are still missing. As well as that, we've been told that the boat sank to a depth of 500 m beneath the surface

of the sea and that this now is one of the major factors complicating this search and rescue effort. >> Are you hearing any more about the possible cause of this? Why what might have happened to this catamaran for it

to capsize in the first place? Perhaps to do with its condition and also the conditions at sea. >> Thus far we've had nothing concrete on that, but what we have heard is that the idea of it being

a weather induced problem seems to not be the case. The Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said about half an hour ago now that the weather seemed to be quite nice out at sea and I think without directly going against the hypothesis that it could have been the weather

which caused the problem, that seems to be him going as far away as he can go within the bounds not willing to speculate too much to say that likely this was a problem caused by the condition of the boat itself rather than the conditions of the weather or

of the seas around it. >> We've been We were talking earlier that there had been an offer of help from the Republic of Cyprus. How clear are you about what that help consisted of and whether it's been >> So the Republic of Cyprus's offer

came from the joint rescue and coordination center which is one of the major search and rescue centers in this region. It's based in Lanarca next to the Lanarca airport and they have both maritime and aerial means of doing search

and rescue That offer as far as I'm aware as I speak has not been acknowledged by the Turkish Cypriot authorities yet. Instead they have returned to Turkey. Ersin Tatar said about half an hour ago again he

has contacted Turkey that the authorities under him have contacted Turkey as well and Turkey has responded. Turkey's state news agency Anadolu has written here five vessels and two coast guard helicopters were were um deployed by the Turkish Coast Guard Command and six naval vessels have

been deployed to the area by Turkey's navy. Um and therefore this uh operation appears to be Turkish-led at this point and with the Republic of Cyprus' offer having uh been not even acknowledged, let alone accepted. >> And the problem is, of course, that the the more