A Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo ship sank off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, Turkish officials said.
The Joe 2 sank off the coast of Kumluca, in Antalya province, while heading to Ukraine's Izmail port from the Turkish port of Iskenderun.
The ship had in total 14 crew members of Syrian origin and sunk some 37 km off the coast of Antalya province.
Five crew members were rescued while efforts to find nine others were underway.
The cause of the ship sinking was not immediately clear.
The Turkish Coast Guard Command said it received a distress call at 3:47 a.m. and dispatched a vessel, several boats and two helicopters. Two crew members were rescued by the coast guard helicopters while three others were saved by other vessels in the area, it said.
The coast guard said an investigation has been launched by the chief prosecutor’s office for Kumluca.
