# Cargo ship sinks after collision off Istanbul as search continues for 10 missing crew
Turkish rescue teams were still searching the Marmara Sea on Wednesday after a cargo ship carrying 10 crew members sank following a collision with a tanker off the coast of Istanbul.
Authorities said the mv Tugberk Imamoglu collided with the Turkish-flagged tanker Alsu around 18 nautical miles off Silivri, on the western edge of Istanbul province, in the early hours of the morning. The General Directorate of Maritime Affairs said the vessel appeared to have sunk after failing to respond to repeated calls, and Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said no one had yet been found alive.
The sinking was reported to have happened quickly. Uraloglu said the vessel went under in 11 minutes. Search teams recovered a lifeboat and other debris from the ship, but there was still no sign of the crew, including the captain. Officials said two helicopters and 12 search and rescue vessels were deployed in the area, underscoring the scale of the response as daybreak followed the collision.
The maritime directorate said the first rescue vessel reached the scene about an hour after the initial emergency signal. The Alsu’s captain had reported the collision shortly after it occurred, and the directorate said the two ships had been in radio contact before impact. Unal Baylan, the directorate’s head, said the exchange suggested the captains had seen one another and were trying to adjust course before the collision.
The owner of the Tugberk Imamoglu disputed that account, saying the cargo ship’s captain warned the tanker that it was entering the vessel’s shipping lane. In a statement, Imamoglu Denizcilik said its initial findings indicated the Alsu’s navigational movements led to the collision and that the cargo ship sank soon afterward. Turkish media reported that radio recordings indicated the Tugberk Imamoglu’s captain had asked the tanker to steer to port in an effort to avoid the crash. The tanker’s owners did not immediately respond to that claim.
The ships were on different routes when they met in the Marmara Sea. The cargo vessel, about 90 metres long, was travelling from the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun to Eregli on the Black Sea. The 91-metre Alsu, described as an oil or chemical tanker, was sailing from Kocaeli, east of Istanbul, to Aliaga on Turkey’s Aegean coast, according to MarineTraffic. Those route details help explain why the collision drew such a large search effort in busy waters near Istanbul.
The Silivri Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened an investigation into the sinking. That means the sequence of events, the radio exchanges, and the cause of the collision are likely to remain under review while search crews continue working in the area.
For now, the focus remains on the missing crew members. Turkish authorities identified all 10 aboard as seafarers, and Uraloglu said they were all Turkish. With a lifeboat recovered, debris found, and no confirmed survivors at the time of reporting, the incident stands as a serious maritime emergency off Istanbul.
The event date is 2026-09-02.
