South African authorities were searching on Thursday for 26 crew members who went missing after a bulk carrier sank off South Africa's notoriously dangerous southeastern coast, rescue workers said.
The Alexandros T, which was sailing from Brazil to China with a load of iron ore, broke up at around 8pm on Wednesday in stormy weather around 300 nautical miles off the east coast harbor city of Port Elizabeth.
It sank with 33 crew members -- including four Greek citizens -- on board in heavy winds and swells of up to 5m.
South African Maritime Search and Rescue chief Andre Botes told reporters that apart from six crew members rescued overnight, one other sailor was plucked from a dinghy on Thursday morning.
"Another person was rescued off a life raft earlier this morning, so 26 crew members still remain missing," Botes said.
By late Thursday afternoon concerns were growing for the men's safety after a ship found around four life rafts in the area -- all of them empty.
"It is worrying. It means that the other 26 are all in the water," Botes said.
"The water temperature is around 18?C and their chance of survival is pretty good, but they will suffer from hypothermia by now and may be unable to attract the searchers' attention," he said.
National Sea Rescue Institute spokesman Craig Lambinon said the missing men wore life jackets at the time the ship sank.
"As far as we know only five crew members made it into a life raft. They were rescued together with another crew member floating in the water," Lambinon told reporters before the latest sailor was rescued.
Lambinon said the St Vincent and Grenadines-registered and Greek-operated carrier, with a gross tonnage of 91,164, sent out a distress call at around 4pm on Wednesday saying it was taking on water in the heavy swells.
"Several vessels in the area then sailed to the scene including the ship Fortune Express, which is looking for the survivors," he said.
An air force C-130 Hercules search plane that overflew the site spotted some five life rafts in the water, air force spokesman Ronald Maseko said, but when the Fortune Express investigated, the life rafts were empty.
"Our plane will continue to fly into the night for as long as possible to look out for flares from the survivors," Maseko said.
"The area where the ship sank is too far for our helicopters to reach, but we will drop more dinghies if we spot somebody in the water," he added.
Conditions have improved, Botes said, with the wind dropping from a raging 40 knots last night to 11 knots this morning.
He said more ships were en route to help in the rescue operation including the Chinese carrier Fu Le, which arrived on the scene at 2pm.
Four of the sailors are Greek, including the captain, his second-in-command and two mechanics, according to a statement.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to