Four missing in pleasure boat accident

Four people were missing and 15 others were injured after a Turkish pleasure boat carrying university graduates collided with a ship carrying steel in Istanbul’s Bosphorus straits.

The Yeni Besiktas 2, carrying 26 people celebrating their graduation from a local university, sank after colliding with the Cambodian-flagged Modisk 3 near the residential district of Kurucesme, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Twenty-two students and three crew members were rescued, and authorities were looking for four others, including two students and two crew members, the agency said.

Anatolia quoted students as saying two other passengers who were not immediately accounted had reached shore.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, but the Turkish captain of the Yeni Besiktas 2 said that the Cambodian ship did not have its lights on, private NTV television reported.

The 15 injured were treated at a nearby hospital and released, NTV said.

The Bosphorus, which bisects Istanbul, is one of the world’s most dangerous waterways. Accidents are frequent in the narrow waterway, which is the sole passage between the Mediterranean and the

Black Sea.

The Modisk 3, which was carrying steel from the Ukraine to Italy, did not sustain serious damage and was taken to a local port while authorities investigate.

It was the second serious accident involving pleasure boats this month.

Five people were killed after a Turkish-flagged ship sank off the coast of the Istanbul suburb of Uskudar on June 6.