Black Sea storm sinks vessels, five sailors dead

Black Sea storm sinks vessels, five sailors dead A fierce storm in the Azov and Black Seas on Sunday sunk at least five ships, including a small tanker that spilled up to 2,000 tons of fuel oil in the narrow Kerch Strait between Russia and the Ukraine.
   Unconfirmed reports suggest a total of 10 ships sank or ran aground during the storm, battered by waves reaching 18 feet.
   The bodies of five dead seafarers have been found while rescuers are searching for other missing sailors.
   The focus of the clean-up operation is on a spill from Russian tanker, Volganeft-139, which split in half and sunk near the Ukrainian port of Kerch. All 13 crewmembers from the tanker were saved, but rescuers are still searching for the crew of a general cargo ship carrying scrap metal that sank off the coast of Sevastopol.
   Two barges carrying crude oil also ran aground but their tanks are believed to be intact. Three dry cargo ships, each containing over two 2,000 tons of sulphur, also went down in the Kerch Strait.