ISTANBUL - A Turkish cargo ship sank in the Marmara Sea near Istanbul after colliding with another vessel, with search efforts ongoing for its ten crew members.

Before dawn on Wednesday, the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo ship carrying rolled steel, collided with the ALSU—initially reported as carrying 3,000 tons of oil but later confirmed empty—and sank shortly after. Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said the emergency call came in at 03.26. The sinking was extremely rapid, occurring within about eleven minutes of the captain's reported collision time of 03.15. The vessel went down roughly 18 nautical miles off Silivri district, in waters about 900 meters deep. All ten people aboard—the captain and nine crew members, all Turkish nationals—remain missing. Rescuers found life buoys and a lifeboat from the Tugberk Imamoglu, but both were empty, with no survivors located so far. Fourteen vessels and a helicopter are involved in search and rescue operations by sea and air. The damaged ALSU is also participating in the efforts. The Tugberk Imamoglu, built in 1990, is a Turkish-flagged vessel approximately 90 meters long. It was carrying 4,200 tons of rolled sheet metal and rebar at the time of the collision. The incident occurred just three days after a deadly ferry accident off Northern Cyprus that killed eight Turkish nationals, with rescuers still searching for another twenty people listed as missing. (Bssnews)