Ship accidents

At least 11 people died after their boat, which was carrying an unknown number of passengers, overturned off the coast of Puerto Rico, the US Coast Guard said Thursday.

"As of 6 PM Thursday (2200 GMT), responding partner agency units have rescued 31 survivors, 11 female and 20 male. 11 deceased have been recovered," the Coast Guard said in a tweet.

A spokesperson for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told AFP that the shipwreck occurred 10 nautical miles (18 kilometers) north of Desecheo Island, an uninhabited US territory between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. — AFP

A massive container ship, owned by the same company whose vessel last year blocked the Suez Canal, has run aground near the US port of Baltimore, US officials said Monday.

The Ever Forward, a 1,096-foot (334-meter) vessel ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay shortly after leaving a Baltimore port Sunday night, said the executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, William Doyle, in a statement.

"There have been no injuries or spills," Doyle clarified.

"The ship's grounding is not preventing other ships from transiting to the Port of Baltimore," he added, noting that efforts had been underway since Sunday night to free the stranded vessel. — AFP

The bodies of 16 people killed when their boat sank in the Channel while trying to reach England were repatriated early Sunday to Iraqi Kurdistan where their families were awaiting them, an AFP photographer saw.

The plane carrying them arrived around 2:00 am at Arbil, capital of the autonomous region in northern Iraq.

The remains were transferred to ambulances to transport them to their hometowns of Darbandikhan, Ranya, Soran and Qadrawa.

At least 27 people perished in the November 24 tragedy, the deadliest disaster since the Channel became a hub for clandestine migrant crossings from France to England. — AFP

At least 11 Indonesian migrants died and 27 are believed to be missing after a boat sank Wednesday in stormy weather off southern Malaysia, authorities say. 

Indonesians looking for work sometimes try to enter neighbouring Malaysia illegally by making sea crossings in rickety boats, and accidents happen regularly.

The vessel, believed to be carrying 60 migrants, went down in the morning off Malaysia's southern state of Johor, the coastguard says. — AFP

Two people were missing on Monday after two cargo ships collided in waters south of Sweden in the early morning hours, the Swedish Maritime Administration says.

The ships collided in the Baltic Sea between the Swedish city of Ystad and the Danish island of Bornholm, the head of press at the Swedish Maritime Administration, tells AFP.

"Shortly after half past 3 am (0230GMT), we received an alert through our sea and flight rescue central that two freight vessels have collided," Carl-Johan Linde says. 

"One of the ships has capsized and is upside down," Linde says, adding that two people from that vessel had ended up in the water as a result of the collision. — AFP

The Philippine Coast Guard sends a team to respond to a collision between MV Palawan Pearl and foreign-flagged BKM 104 at the South Harbor Anchorage Area in Manila Bay.

The Palawan Pearl is carrying arounf 3,000 liters of diesel oil in its storage tank, the coast guard says, adding it has deployed an oil spill boom around the ship, which is now half submerged.

BKM 104 is a vessel used in dredging and land development activity, the PCG also says.

Photo: Philippine Coast Guard release

Rumesponde ang Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) sa banggaan ng dalawang sasakyang pandagat, ang MV PALAWAN PEARL at BKM 104, sa katubigan ng South Harbor Anchorage area bandang 02:10 a.m. ngayong araw, ika-08 ng Hulyo 2021.

At least 26 people died Wednesday when their fishing boat sank off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, the country's military says.

Armed forces spokesman Jose Meza says that 47 people, however, survived when the vessel sank east of the remote coastal Mosquitia region.

The captain of a Budapest river cruise ship involved in a deadly collision with a sightseeing boat last week is already under investigation over another accident in April, Hungarian prosecutors say.

The death toll from the May 29 accident rose to 19 on Thursday after four more bodies were identified from the Mermaid tourist boat which sank seconds after colliding with the Viking Sigyn on a busy stretch of the Danube river.

After last week's crash, the 64-year-old Ukrainian captain of the larger Viking Sigyn ship was arrested on suspicion of "endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths". — AFP

Authorities say 17 people were missing after a cargo boat sank off eastern Indonesia, the latest maritime accident to hit the sprawling archipelago nation.

The vessel overturned on Saturday afternoon with 18 people onboard. 

It was sailing from Bitung, on the northern tip of Sulawesi island, to Morowali regency in the south, rescue officials say. — AFP

South Korean relatives of victims of the Budapest boat tragedy visit the scene of the accident which left seven dead and 21 missing after a sightseeing boat sank.

The ill-fated Mermaid carrying mainly South Korean tourists overturned and capsized in pouring rain late Wednesday, seconds after colliding with a much larger cruise ship on the Danube river.

Rescuers looking for the missing are battling strong currents with Seoul requesting that the search be extended further south along the Danube. — AFP

Seven South Korean tourists were killed and 19 missing after a pleasure boat capsized on the Danube in the Hungarian capital, Hungary's foreign ministry says.

A total of 33 South Koreans were onboard and seven have been rescued, with a rescue operation underway for the missing 19, it said, adding the boat capsized after a collision Wednesday with a cruise ship, without elaborating further.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in had instructed officials to "deploy all available resources" for the rescue, the presidential office says.

— AFP

Follow news on rescue efforts and other updates on accidents involving watercraft.