Six sailors saved after ship sinks off Lebanon
AFP Global Edition | 2009-12-12 19:10:24
<div><p>Five crew members of a Togolese-flagged ship that sank off Lebanon have been rescued by Israel, taking the total number of those saved to six, an Israeli military spokeswoman said on Saturday.</p><p>"Helicopters sent to the scene first found one survivor and then four more," the spokeswoman said, adding that the sailors from the Sala-2 were taken to hospital in Israel's northern port city of Haifa.</p><p>Earlier on Saturday, the defence ministry said 11 Ukrainian sailors were missing after the ship went down, and that the military had begun a rescue operation in conjunction with UN forces.</p><p>Andrea Tenenti, deputy spokesman of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP in Beirut that a distress signal had been received from the ship late on Friday.</p><p>"When a boat from the Turkish MTF (Maritime Task Force) arrived there, the vessel was already sinking. We saved one sailor," he said.</p><p>Six sailors from the 12-strong crew are still missing.</p><p>The ship had been heading from Greece towards Haifa and was 50 miles off the Lebanese coast when it sank, the Israeli military said.</p><p>A Lebanese military spokesman confirmed to AFP that the vessel went down in international waters, saying it sank "more than 70 miles off Naqura" on the Lebanon-Israel border.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65304187&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>
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