Lebanese navy said on Friday it has rescued 38 people and found four bodies off the coast of north Lebanon, after a cargo ship with 83 people on board sank in the Mediterranean on Thursday night, Xinhua reported.
The Panamanian-flagged freighter, Danny FII, carrying livestock from Uruguay to Tartous, Syria, capsized about 17 km off the coast of northwest Lebanese city of Tripoli amid heavy rainstorm, the navy was quoted by the official National News Agency as saying.
One of the rescued said the British captain has died, local Now Lebanon news website reported.
Local newspaper Daily Star quoted a port official in Tripoli as saying that many of the ship's crew members were from the Philippines and Pakistan.
Lebanese navy and UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) maritime task force are still searching for survivors.
However, rescue efforts were hampered by heavy rain and thunderstorms that lashed Lebanon on Thursday and Friday. Many roads in the country were blocked due to flooding triggered by the heavy rainfall.
The freighter is the second ship that sank off Lebanese coastal waters in a week. A Togolese-flagged freighter capsized around 70 km off the coast of Lebanon's south city of Tyre on Dec. 11.
38 rescued after cargo ship sinks off Lebanon
