In a devastating maritime incident near the Greek island of Lesvos, the body of a crew member from the sunken freighter ‘Raptor’ was discovered by a nearby boat on Sunday afternoon.
This discovery brings the count of missing crew members down to 12, following the earlier rescue of one survivor in the morning.
The ‘Raptor,’ sailing under the Comoros Islands flag and managed by a Lebanese-based company, met its tragic fate while transporting salt from Egypt to Istanbul.
The vessel carried 14 crew members, including 1 Indian, 11 Egyptians, and 2 Syrians. The rescued survivor, an Egyptian national, was promptly transferred to the hospital of Mytilini on Lesvos.
The unfortunate sequence of events began when, at 7am on Sunday morning, the ship reported a mechanical failure. By 8.20am, the captain communicated that the vessel was listing and initiated an emergency call to nearby ships. Subsequently, the ‘Raptor’ vanished from radar screens.
Despite very rough seas attributed to a weather phenomenon, characterised by winds reaching 9 and 10 on the Beaufort scale, ongoing search and rescue efforts involve eight nearby ships, a frigate from the Hellenic Navy, and a helicopter.
Source: AMNA.gr.
