Lebanese and UN officials launched a major rescue operation on Thursday after a boat with 83 crew aboard capsized in a storm off the tiny Mediterranean country's northern coast, officials said. The Panamanian-flagged ship Danny Two, which was transporting livestock from Uruguay to the Syrian port of Tartous, overturned some 11 nautical miles off the port of Tripoli at around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT), the officials said.

Lebanese navy rescue boats, including a medical team, rushed to the scene of the disaster along with three vessels from the United Nations force stationed off Lebanon (UNIFIL). "Three maritime task force ships, one Italian and two German, were dispatched about 10 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli after the Lebanese navy received a distress call from a Panamanian-flagged ship," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009