According to Russian authorities, the Murmansk-based ship “Onega” sank near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Barents Sea.
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Le Monde avec AFP
A fishing vessel sank on Monday December 28 in the Russian Arctic after having frozen. Seventeen people are missing while the rescue operations continue, authorities said by Russian news agencies.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, quoted by TASS agency , this is the Onega ship, based in Murmansk, which sank near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Barents Sea. “The crew is made up of 19 people. Two people were saved,” he added.
Bad weather in the area of the wreck
A ship takes part in the operations search and three others are en route to the scene of the accident, according to the same source, which specifies that the cause of the sinking is “icing”. According to another source interviewed by TASS, the “bad” weather in the area of the wreck did not allow the use of aviation for rescue operations.
In January 2018, a Russian fishing vessel with 21 people on board sank in the Sea of Japan, without any survivors being found after five days of search operations by freezing temperatures and strong winds. In April 2015, the sinking of a Russian freezer trawler in the same region killed at least 56 people. In the Barents Sea, 14 Russian officers were killed in July 2019 in the fire of their submarine, an accident whose circumstances had not been revealed by the authorities in the name of “state secrecy”.