A Turkish passenger ferry and a Ukrainian-flagged cargo ship collided off Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Monday, injuring 48 passengers, officials said Monday. "A total of 48 people were injured in the collision," the Istanbul mayor's office said in a statement.
It added that one man sustained serious injuries in the accident, while the rest were treated as outpatients. Earlier, the Istanbul health department had put the number of injured at 40.
An investigation was launched to determine the cause of the accident in the Sea of Marmara, the Anatolia news agency said. The maritime undersecretariat in Ankara said the passenger ferry, operated by a municipality-owned company, had run into the cargo ship, the Semyon Rudhnev, which was anchored at the time. In Kiev, the Ukrainian foreign ministry also said the Turkish ferry was at fault.
"According to initial information, the Turkish party is responsible for the accident," it said in a statement, adding that the ship's crew did not suffer any injuries.
The ferry ran into the cargo ship about 20 minutes after it left the quay in Yenikapi, on the city's European side, with 449 passengers en route to the island of Avsa some 110 kilometres (68 miles) miles south-west of Istanbul.
Suffering only minor damage, it returned to Yenikapi. Authorities immediately dispatched ambulances and fire engines to the quay. The Ukrainian ship, which was waiting to take cargo from Istanbul to Ukraine, also suffered minor damage, Anatolia reported. The Marmara Sea links to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus Strait cutting through Istanbul, a city of 12 million people, and connects to the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles Strait.
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