Three Turkish rescuers died on Tuesday while searching for the crew of the sunken Volgo-Balt 199 cargo vessel off Istanbul, a Voice of Russia's correspondent reports.
A rescue boat hit the reefs and overturned, killing three rescuers, the Voice of Russia Istanbul correspondent reports.
A fisherman who was trying to help the sunken ship's crew also died.
The Volgo-Balt 199 manned by one Russian and 11 Ukrainian crewmembers sent a distress signal in the early hours of Tuesday.
Four sailors have been rescued. Meanwhile, another ship - the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Adriatic with 14 people on board - is in distress further west off the Turkish coast after being caught in rough weather.
One of the three sailors saved from the wrecked dry cargo ship off the Turkish coast has died on his way to hospital, a Voice of Russia's correspondent reports from the ground.
The Volgo Balt 199 vessel was carrying over 3 tons of Russian coal to Turkey when it ran aground during a Black Sea storm near Istanbul.
Its crew of eleven Ukrainians and one Russian had gone missing, Turkish coast guard said. The three survivors were flown to a Turkish clinic by helicopter. Rescuers are looking for the other crew members.
Meanwhile, another ship - the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Adriatic with 14 people on board - is in danger of being overturned further west off the Turkish coast due to an engine failure after being caught in stormy weather that has forced authorities to suspend ferry communications across the Bosporus Strait.
A coal-loaded dry cargo ship, Volgo Balt 199, wrecked in a storm off Sile near Istanbul on Tuesday, leaving 12 crew members missing, Turkish coast guard says.
The vessel didn't give a distress signal, they claim. Rescuers are looking for the missing seamen off Sile, on the Black Sea, despite the raging storm that hit the Sea of Marmara earlier today, NTV channel reports.
A severe storm has been battering Istanbul since late Monday, with winds as strong as 80 kilometers per hour. The elements have badly damaged some seaside areas, tearing roofs off houses and uprooting trees on the Marmara coast.
Ferry services on the Bosphorus Strait have been cancelled due to high winds.