A passing ferry found only an overturned lifeboat and life jackets at the scene, while two injured sailors from a second vessel are being rushed to hospital in Varna.
A search is under way in the Black Sea for the crew of a cargo ship that sank after drones struck two commercial vessels off Bulgaria early on Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Sea and aerial drones hit the ships at about 3am local time (2am CET), around 70 nautical miles east of the town of Byala in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
The crew of the Bulgarian ferry Dioscuria, which was in the area, saw an explosion on the first ship and sailed to the scene, Radev confirmed. They found an overturned lifeboat and life jackets but no one from the crew.
Officials have not said how many people were on board.
The second ship caught fire and all 18 of its crew were rescued by the Dioscuria. Eleven are Turkish and seven Indian, according to the televised address from Radev.
Two of them were injured, one with burns and one with a head injury. A navy boat picked them up and was taking them to Varna, where military medical teams were standing by, Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said according to local news outlet Nova Varna.
The other 16 are being brought ashore on a Border Police patrol boat.
Stoyanov said two helicopters had been sent to Varna to pick up rescue teams and a Su-25 aircraft would carry out aerial reconnaissance over the area. The operation is being run by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.
Both vessels sent distress signals during the night and one disappeared from Border Police radar at about 9am local time (8am CET), public broadcaster BNR reported.
Bulgarian shipping news site Maritime.bg named the sunken ship as the Alfa Watan and the second as the Palau-flagged Able. It said the strikes were the first attack on shipping in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone.
Ship tracking website vesselfinder.com shows the Alfa Watan was sailing under the flag of Togo and was headed for the Romanian port of Sulina.
The second ship was carrying wheat and sailing south, Radev said. The cargo of the sunken vessel is not yet known.
Radev, who called the attack "absolutely unacceptable", did not say who launched the drones.
The incident occurred a day after a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying grain in the Black Sea was attacked by at least one drone and sank after catching fire.