LEBANON: Amid stormy seas, dozens presumed dead in shipwreck

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Dozens of people are missing and presumed dead after a cargo ship carrying livestock capsized off Lebanon on Thursday.

An international rescue team worked through the night, managing to save 38 of the 83-member crew by this morning, with at least four confirmed dead and many more missing.

‘The sea conditions are rough and we need to find the survivors quickly because they run the risk of hypothermia,’ a Tripoli port official told the Agence France-Presse late Thursday.

‘Rescue efforts are being hampered by the fact that we’re operating in an area where the waves are as high as [10 feet] and because of the floating dead animals,’ he said.

The Panamanian-flagged Danny F II, which was carrying tens of thousands of sheep and cattle, reportedly sent out a distress signal just before capsizing several miles off Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon.

The vessel was traveling from Uruguay to Tartus in Syria and then was scheduled to arrive in Beirut with half the cargo, Maroun Khoury, the head of Beirut Ports, told The Times. He added that the environmental and health risks of thousands of decomposing animals would be assessed after the rescue efforts have been completed.

Those efforts are reportedly being carried out by two Lebanese naval ships, United Nations peacekeeping vessels, two civilian ships and British air support from Cyprus. The Danny F II’s crew members mostly are from Pakistan and the Philippines but also Lebanon, Syria, Britain, Australia, Russia and Uruguay, according to news reports. The British Embassy confirmed to the Associated Press the presence of two British citizens aboard, one of whom is thought to be the captain.

The wreck raises questions about Lebanon’s ability to respond to large-scale maritime disasters with the navy only possessing a few small boats.

“I don’t know how many boats they have, but it’s no secret it’s minimal -- it’s nothing in this kind of emergency,’ retired Lebanese army Brig. Gen. Elias Hanna told The Times. ‘They don’t have the structure or the infrastructure as far as the boats or even the skills are concerned or the people needed for such things.’

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut