Cargo ship with 10 crew sinks off Istanbul after collision, maritime authorities say

BREAKING: A cargo ship with 10 crew aboard sinks off Istanbul after a collision 18 nautical miles off the Silivri district, Turkish maritime authorities say.

A cargo ship with ten crew on board has sunk off Istanbul.

Turkish maritime authorities say it went down after a collision, eighteen nautical miles off the Silivri district, on the Sea of Marmara side of the city. That stretch of water sits on the approach to the Bosphorus, one of the busiest shipping corridors anywhere in the world, with vessels stacked up waiting for passage day and night. You can see how crowded that horizon gets here.

What we know so far is limited. The authorities have confirmed the collision and the sinking, and that ten crew members were aboard. They have not yet said what the ship hit, what it was carrying, or the condition of the people on it. Turkey's coast guard handles rescues in these waters and search operations in the Marmara move fast when they have to.

For now, the hardest fact is this. Ten people were on that ship, and it is on the bottom of the sea.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.