ISTANBUL (AP) — A cargo ship carrying tons of grain from Ukraine was stranded in Istanbul’s Bosporus and needed to be rescued early Friday.
Turkey’s Directorate Common of Coastal Security tweeted that the 173-meter cargo ship was caught off the coast of the scenic Bebek neighborhood late Thursday due to a rudder malfunction. The busy strait was closed to visitors for the rescue by coastal security boats. The Panama-flagged Girl Zehma was towed and the strait re-opened.
The cargo ship had departed the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk below the deal brokered by the United Nations that permits the secure cargo of Ukrainian grain. It’s the primary reported incident of malfunction since grain shipments restarted final month.
On Aug. 29, the Joint Coordination Heart in Istanbul — which screens the ships below the grain deal and consists of Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and U.N. officers — licensed the motion of Girl Zehma with 3,000 metric tons of corn to Ravenna, Italy. The ship is at present anchored within the Marmara Sea off the coast of Istanbul.
