UPDATEThe Danish freighter Karin Hoej capsized last night in the Baltic Sea near Sweden after colliding with a British freighter, the Scot Carrier. A large-scale rescue operation tries to rescue the two people on board the ship from the icy water.
Jonas Franzen, spokesman for the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA), tells BBC News that rescue services received a distress call at 3:30 a.m. last night that the British freighter Scot Carrier had hit the Danish freighter Karin Hoej, after which the latter had capsized. They immediately went out. Upon arrival, they heard “screaming in the water” from the capsized ship. There were only two people on board the Karin Hoej.
The rescue operation is a big job, but it has to be rushed, given the situation in the Baltic Sea: “It is very cold and dark there,” Franzen shared. “At the moment the water is about 4 degrees Celsius, and the air about 5 degrees.” The Swedish health authority shares that you can normally not survive for more than an hour in these conditions without wearing protective clothing.
Two helicopters and several boats from Sweden and Denmark helped rescue services comb the sea around the capsized ship, but the search has since been discontinued. Divers have been sent out to see if the people on board are in a bubble in the ship, but “we haven’t found anyone yet,” Franzen said. The chances of them coming out alive are getting smaller and smaller.
It is not yet clear how the two ships, which were heading in the same direction, could have sailed against each other. According to Danish weather bureaus, the light was foggy, but not so bad that the ships could not see each other. The Swedish authorities are investigating whether there is ‘gross negligence’. Alcohol may have been involved on one of the two boats, reports BBC News.
The Karin Hoej, 55 meters long, was on its way from Sweden to Denmark without cargo. The Scot Carrier, 90 meters long, was en route to Scotland. It is not known what the British ship was carrying in terms of cargo and people.
The Karin Hoej is capsized between the Danish island of Bornholm and the Swedish coastal village of Ystad:
Watch our trending news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#Cargo #ship #capsizes #collision #Sweden #people #board #died #icy #sea