(Athens) After five days, Greek authorities said Friday they had stopped the search for the 12 sailors, including nine Egyptians, missing in the sinking of a cargo ship carrying salt off the island of Lesvos in the Aegean Sea .
“The search has stopped”, “the cargo ship is at a depth of 300 meters”, a coast guard official told AFP on Friday morning.
A 27-year-old Egyptian sailor is the only survivor found from the shipwreck, which occurred Sunday 4.5 nautical miles southwest of Lesvos. Initially, the coast guard indicated that he was 40 years old.
According to his statement to authorities, reported by the media, he jumped into the sea as soon as the boat started taking on water on Saturday evening. Hanging on a barrel, he was spotted on Sunday by a Greek navy helicopter and transported to Lesvos hospital, from where he was released on Thursday. He is due to return to his country on Friday, according to the coast guard.
The body of another Egyptian sailor, aged 30, was found by authorities on Sunday. Since then, a Greek navy frigate and other ships sailing in the area have searched for possible survivors without result.
Flying the Comorian flag and managed by a Lebanese company, the Raptor had set sail from Alexandria (Egypt) bound for Istanbul (Turkey) with a crew of 11 Egyptians, two Syrians and an Indian.
Carrying 6,000 tonnes of salt, this ship built in 1984 sank after sending out a distress signal on Sunday morning due to an engine failure.
Winds of up to 49 km/hour were blowing in the area and Greek authorities banned navigation on Sunday.
On Monday, coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou said the ship “should have alerted emergency services sooner”.
The coast guard opened an investigation while the media deplored that “the managing company sacrificed 13 people by not alerting in time”.
The Greek sailors’ union (PENEN) on Thursday criticized “rotten boats” as Raptor which “lack security” and “sail dangerously around the world” flying the flag of countries like the Comoros which “appear on the blacklist of “Paris MoU” (the body of European port authorities and the countries of South America). North) “.