The cattle truck "Queen Hind" capsized on Sunday shortly after departure from the port of Capu Midia on the Black Sea coast of Romania. The 85 meter long freighter had leaked at 12 o'clock with a load of 14,000 sheep for export to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Why the ship sailing under the flag of the island state Palau after just a few hundred meters on the open sea quickly got list and then capsized, is so far unclear.
The crew of the freighter, according to the British news channel BBC, all sailors from Syria, was rescued in a joint effort by Coast Guard, police and fire. Only one man fell into the water and had to be hospitalized for hypothermia.
Photo by IGSU Romania / AFP
Rescue crew boat with sheep pulled out of the water
After rescuing the crew, the aides tried to get the sheep out of the water as well. Some had been able to free themselves from the ship while swimming. But most of the animals died when the hold of the ship was flooded.
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