Ship collision leaves 3 dead, 5 missing in Adriatic Sea off Albania

Three sailors of a Turkish-owned vessel have been found dead and two others have been saved after their merchant ship collided off Albania's coast with the ferry in wee hours on Thursday, the Durres port authority said. Search and rescue operations are under way to look for five other members of the Reina1 commercial vessel under Turkish ownership flying Maltese flag which was on its route to the Montenegrin port of Bar when it collided 20 miles off Albania's Durress port with the ferry bound for the Italian port of Bari. "Three people are dead and five others, all members of the commercial vessel crew are missing," said Edmond Doraci, the Durres port captain. "Rescue and search operations are still ongoing to find five others who have gone missing." The ferry did not suffer any damages and has assisted the rescue search. The Turkish ship had gone down and sunk in a matter of five minutes, Durres prefect Genc Alizoti said. Reports said all the 196 passengers of the ferry did not suffer any injuries, but Alizoti said one of them was dead. At daylight, an helicopter joined the Albanian coastguard ship and port motorboats and Italian vessels of the Guardia di Finanza in the search and rescue operation. Some believe the bodies might have been trapped in the ship when it sunk. Doraci said Ahmet Secik and Ahmet Bau, the ship's captain and his deputy, had survived their shipwreck and they were in hospital without any life-threatening symptoms except hypothermia.