Man missing after ship sinks in rough seas

A NORTH Korean flagged Syrian ship sank in rough weather off Cyprus yesterday as rescue teams saved six of the seven crew members. The seventh was still missing last night.

Police said they had received information of a Mayday call from the ship, the Haj Jamal at around 5.30am yesterday.

The vessel was some 85 nautical miles off the island’s south-eastern coast when the distress signal was received up by a German military frigate, which also picked up one of the crew from the water.
The frigate informed the Co-ordination Centre for Research and Rescue, who informed police.

A police spokesman said that around 6.45am a helicopter from the Cyprus Police Airwing took off from Larnaca Airport. At the same time a vessel of the Port and Marine Police headed for the area where the Haj Jamal went down.

Around 45 minutes later, the police helicopter located five crew members, including the captain, on a life raft. They were winched on to the helicopter and taken to a second German frigate in the area, which had been helping in the search and rescue efforts.

The five crew members were suffering from hypothermia and were given first aid aboard the German ship.
At 10.30am, they were taken by helicopter to Larnaca Airport and from there to Larnaca hospital by ambulance.

Reports from Larnaca said the men’s condition was not serious and they were able to give statements to police, who are investigating the cause of the sinking.

Rescue teams were still searching for the seventh crew member late yesterday. The sixth crew member who was picked up by the first German frigate was brought by the ship to Limassol port. He was also suffering from hypothermia and was admitted to Limassol hospital.
The Haj Jamal had been en route from Egypt to Syria with 1,300 tonnes of sugar.

All seven crew members of the vessel are thought to be Syrian.
The German navy is patrolling the coast of Lebanon as part of the beefed up UNIFIL force authorised after last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.

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.