Ship sailing under Moldovan flag suffers disaster in Sochi

A dry cargo ship sailing under the Moldovan flag was washed ashore yesterday night at 22:00 by storm waves, right onto the central beach of the Russian city of Sochi, near which it was anchored, the press service of the Moldovan Government said in a release, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The ship lost its bow to the storm before being washed ashore. All 13 crew members, 8 Ukrainians and 5 Russians, were rescued by Russian beach patrols and are reported to be safe. The 37 tonnes of fuel in the tanks of the ship are to be evacuated by the Russian emergency services. It was reported that no spills occurred and the environment wasn't affected. The 4,000-tonne dry cargo ship, called ARAS 1, is owned by Nagrand Shipping Co. Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The fleet of the Republic of Moldova numbers 435 vessels, mostly owned by foreign companies.