Storms off Ukraine's coast Sunday sank a ship carrying scrap metal as high winds in the area smashed a Russian oil tanker and sent two other cargo vessels to the bottom, a maritime official said.
"There were 17 people on board… The ship sank near Khersones. Two crew members were found on the shore and sent to a hospital in Sevastopol" on the country's Crimean peninsula, Alexei Lyashenko from the country's maritime inspection agency told AFP.
He said 15 sailors were missing.
The ship was carrying 5,600 tonnes of scrap metal and was flying a Georgian flag, Lyashenko said. The cape of Khersones is located in the southwest of the peninsula near Sevastopol.
High winds about 300 kilometres (187 miles) from the cape of Khersones have ripped apart a Russian oil tanker, causing a 1,300-tonne oil spill, and have sunk two cargo ships carrying sulphur in the Kerch Strait that separates Russia and Ukraine, officials said earlier.
