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Disaster fears after storm
12/11/2007 21:55 - (SA)
Port Kavkaz - The bodies of three sailors washed ashore on Monday and 20 more were missing after a ferocious Black Sea storm sank five ships, including an oil tanker, raising environmental fears.
The three bodies, still in life jackets, were found near the island of Tuzla in southern Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement.
"We're searching for five more sailors," a spokesperson at the crisis centre set up in Port Kavkaz, a commercial hub about 1 200km south of Moscow said.
The spokesperson said officials were also beginning to see signs of environmental damage from the 1 300 tons fuel oil spill caused when a tanker, the Volgoneft-139, was broken in two by the storm on Sunday.
Still searching for missing sailors
"We're collecting dead birds from the shoreline," the spokesperson said.
Port Kavkaz was worst affected when five-metre high waves battered the northern part of the Black Sea. Three sulphur-laden ships - the Volnogorsk, the Nakhichevan and the Kovel - sank near the port.
Rescue workers were still searching on Monday for another 15 sailors missing after a cargo ship, the Hadji Izmail, went to the bottom of the sea near the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, about 300km to the west.
Russian officials issued a new storm warning on Monday as winds picked up in the region again and they said efforts to limit the oil spill had been halted due to the weather.
About 3 000 tons of fuel oil remained inside the wreckage of the ship.
The spill occurred in the Kerch Strait, an environmentally sensitive waterway connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov that is an important migration route for bids and also home to the Black Sea porpoise.
- AFP
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