KARACHI: Dozens of seafarers, more than 30 of them Pakistanis, were missing after a freighter carrying livestock sank in stormy seas off the Lebanese coast, ministry of ports and shipping said here on Friday.
Panamanian-flagged vessel ‘Danny F-II’ with 83 crew members aboard was going from Uruguay to Syria. It was caught up in bad weather and went down in the early hours of Thursday.
Search operations were soon launched by the Lebanese, UN and Nato personnel, who managed to pick up a Pakistani and a Filipino by Thursday night. By Friday evening 38 sailors had been rescued and four bodies found, ministry sources said.
They said the foreign ministry had been informed of the incident so that Pakistani diplomats in Lebanon and neighbouring countries could make arrangements for sending the rescued people and the bodies back home.
AFP adds: Search operations were under way but the weather was still bad, said Andrea Tenenti, deputy spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
A Lebanese military spokesman confirmed that 38 crew members had been found alive and four bodies recovered. The search operations had been widened to international waters near Syria.
Thirty survivors, soaking wet and wrapped in blankets, were ferried into the Lebanese port city of Tripoli on board UN boats, a correspondent said. Another eight, suffering from extreme exhaustion, were flown to land by helicopter.
(Late on Friday night it was reported that a total of 39 people had been rescued and 11 bodies found.)
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