The shipwreck of a catamaran of passenger transport off the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (RTCN) increased to 12 dead and 16 missing, the authorities said today.
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04/09/2026
by
Lusa
Northern Cyprus
O prime minister of the self-proclaimed republic, Unal Ustel, said the bodies of two women were found at 550 meters deep.
“The number of deceased people (...) now reaches the 12 dead,” he wrote.
Two other bodies had already been rescued on Wednesday and Thursday, in addition to the eight collected to the surface in the hours following the sinking.
Search teams considered it likely that all missing persons were trapped in the wreckage of the vessel.
According to the authorities, most of the dead and missing were of Turkish nationality, two of them from RTCN.
According to the rescue teams, 267 people (passengers and crew) were on board the Philojet, a catamaran who was to make the link between Kyrenia and Girne, on the north coast of RTCN, and the Turkish port of Tasucu, when the vessel began to flood.
Of these people, 239 were rescued on Sunday.
According to the investigators quoted by the local press, the tragedy could have been avoided if the captain had slowed down to return with caution to the port of Kyrenia, just a few miles away.
RTCN, recognized only by Turkey, proclaimed independence in 1983, nine years after the Turkish army invaded northern Cyprus following a Cypriot nationalist coup supported by Greece.
The territory occupies about one third of the Mediterranean island.