03 January 2008, 12:57
Novorossisk denies 7 casualties in the Azov Sea
According to the Marine Rescue Centre of Novorossisk, they found bodies of four, not of seven, out of the eleven seamen from the Bulgarian dry-cargo ship "Vanessa" that has sunk today in the Kerch Strait. One member of the crew was rescued.
"Four bodies have been picked up by the salvage ship "Mercury", the fifth seaman is alive, but frostbitten," the spokesman of the Novorossisk Marine Rescue Centre has reported.
He has not confirmed the information about seven casualties, which had been announced earlier by the representative of the press service of the Central Department of the Ministry of Emergencies (MoE) of Russia for the Krasnodar Territory, the RIA "Novosti" reports.
Meanwhile, the Regnum Agency has reported, with reference to the press service of the Southern MoE Regional Centre of the Russian Federation, about one rescued seaman and two casualties whose bodies have been brought onboard the "Mercury" salvage ship to the "Kavkaz" Port.
Information has already appeared about the personality of the saved seaman. He is citizen of Bulgaria Nikolai Demitrov, second mechanic of the sunken "Vanessa". He was diagnosed a strong freezing injury and taken to hospital.
The "Caucasian Knot" has already reported that today in the Azov Sea, 30 miles away from the Kerch Strait, the cargo ship "Vanessa" sank because of bad weather conditions. The ship was carrying metal from the city of Berdyansk and had 11 crew members - 10 citizens of Bulgaria and 1 Ukrainian - onboard.
