Bulgaria ends search for missing crew from drone-hit ship

SOFIA: No survivors have been found from a ship that sank after a drone strike off the coast of Bulgaria, rescuers said on Wednesday, announcing the end of search operations. Drones hit two commercial vessels early on Tuesday in the Black Sea. One caught fire, and the other sank. Eighteen Turkish and Indian crew members were rescued from the ship that caught fire, but the crew members from the vessel that sank remain missing.
Authorities have not said how many people are missing, but according to the Maritime.bg specialised website, 10 people were aboard the ship. 'There is no trace of the sailors,' Rumen Nikolov, the head of the country's Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, told reporters.
The search stopped late on Tuesday and would not continue, he added. 'The operation will not be resumed, because this is a search-and-rescue operation for people and vessels in distress,' he said. 'What was found from the sunken ship was one overturned boat, three life rafts and debris from the ship's equipment that was floating on the surface of the sea,' he added. Asked whether any debris from the drones had been recovered, Nikolov said: 'I have no information about drone debris.' — AFP