Nine deceased by storm in Turkey

Rescue teams in Turkey called Monday for the missing 11 members of the crew of a cargo ship that sank into the Black Sea during a storm that killed at least nine people, including one from the ship, Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

He said the Turkish ship Kafkametler, with 12 members on board, sank off the coast of Erregli in northwest Zonguldak province in Turkey and that the lifeless body of a crew member has been released.

The ship's captain reported on Sunday morning that the ship was headed toward a wavebreaker in Eregili.

The ship probably hit the wave structure.

Turkey was hit by powerful storms on Sunday, as storm weather prevented rescue teams from conducting sea and air search operations until Monday morning.

Yerlikaya said the storms and floods through Turkey over the weekend caused the deaths of four in the southeastern province of Batman, as well as of three others in Zonguldak and another in Diyarbakir, also in the southeast.