Four dead after Turkish fishing boat collides with Greek tanker

At least four people have died after a Turkish fishing boat capsized following a collision with a Greek tanker in the Mediterranean.

The incident took place at dawn on Wednesday, 15 nautical miles off the southeastern Turkish city of Karatas in Adana province, according to Turkey’s coastguard.

Three boats and a team of divers were sent as a part of a search and rescue operation, with four bodies so far recovered, the Adana governor’s office said.

The search for a fifth person is still ongoing, the office added.

The cause of the incident and the number of people onboard the fishing boat are not currently known.

Tensions between Turkey and Greece flared up in the summer over offshore prospecting rights for oil and gas in the Mediterranean, in waters south of the Turkish coast and near several Greek islands.

NATO announced at the start of October it had set up a hotline between the countries’ militaries in the hope of reducing the chance of conflict.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, said at the time: ““It is my firm hope that the underlying disputes between the two allies can now be addressed purely through negotiations in the spirit of allied solidarity and international law.”

Within two weeks of NATO’s announcement, Greece called on the EU to impose sanctions on Turkey after a Turkish ship headed to the eastern Mediterranean to conduct seismic surveys.

While Greece’s foreign ministry labelled the ship’s departure as a “major escalation” and a “direct threat to peace”, Ankara blamed Athens for the rising tensions. 

Additional reporting by Reuters