Drone strike sinks merchant ship off Romania’s coast, one dead, three missing
A sailor is dead and three are missing after a drone strike on October 23 sank the Comoros-flagged merchant ship Khoryv about 13 miles east of Romania’s port city of Constanța, Romanian media said.
Reports citing the Romanian Naval Authority and Ministry of Internal Affairs said that a large-scale rescue operation was underway, involving four ships.
The Khoryv made a distress call at about 10am, reportedly saying that it had been hit by a drone.
Romania’s maritime rescue agency said that nine sailors and the lifeless body of a 10th member of the ship’s crew had been retrieved from the waters of the Black Sea.
The Khoyyv had been sailing from Ereğli, Türkiye, to Sulina, Romania, with a cargo of ferrous metals.
The crew were reported to be 10 Ukrainian nationals and three Azerbaijani nationals.
This is the latest incident of a drone attack on merchant shipping in the Black Sea off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, which have led to stepped-up deployment of military aircraft by Nato. The drone strikes are widely believed to be the work of Russia.
(Photo: Vessel Finder)
