A cargo ship with 12 crew on board sunk on Tuesday in a thunderstorm in the Black Sea off Turkey, maritime authorities said, adding that three people had been rescued. The ship was carrying coal when it sank off the small port of Sile, which lies north-east of the city of Istanbul.

Rescue boats were dispatched to find the missing crew members - 11 Ukrainians and a Russian - and three have been saved, Turkey's maritime authority said, the Anatolia news agency reported. Anatolia said the Saint Kitts and Nevis flagged freighter, the Volga-Balt 199, had sent out a distress signal before disappearing off radar screens.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012