3 dead, 5 missing in ship collision off Albanian coast

DURRES, Oct. 20 – Three sailors died and five others were missing after their merchant ship collided with a passenger ferry and sank in the Adriatic, port authorities said Thursday.
The 3,300-ton Reina 1, sailing under a Maltese flag, sank immediately after the collision in international waters with the car ferry Ankara at about 1 a.m. Thursday some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Albanian port of Durres.
First it was said that one body was taken aboard the ferry while two others have been spotted but not yet recovered due to rough seas, according to port officials. But later it was said there was no body recovered.
Two sailors were rescued.
The Reina 1, loaded with grain in the Black Sea Russian port of Novorossiysk, had been headed to Bar, Montenegro, with a Turkish crew of 10, according to Ahmed Soyturk, 54, one of the survivors, speaking from the Durres hospital.
“It took only two minutes for the ship to go down,” Soyturk said.
The two survivors were in good health, according to hospital personnel in Durres.
No injuries were reported on the ferry, which had left Durres en route for the Italian port of Bari with about 200 passengers. The ferry has remained at the scene of the accident for some hours and later moved toward Italy.
Police gave no information on the cause of the crash.
Police and military ships and helicopters have started a search and rescue operation.