Missing seamen presumed dead

THE search for six crewmen missing from a Cypriot-flagged vessel which sank off Canada on Friday has been called off, the Cyprus Shipping Department confirmed yesterday.

“There is little hope of finding them,” said Department Director Serghios Serghiou of the six crew members still missing from the Flare.

The six missing crew who are now believed drowned bring the death toll from the Flare to 21.

The bodies of 15 have been recovered, while four of the crew survived. The three Filipinos and a Romanian were picked up holding to an overturned lifeboat suffering from hypothermia.

The bulk carrier went down off the French-governed islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. It was sailing from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to pick up a cargo of grain in Montreal.

A Shipping Department inspector is in Canada for the investigation into the cause of the tragedy.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.