Police find bodies of two sailors after fatal ship collision in the Mediterranean Sea

On Friday morning, after 12 hours fatal ship collision, Israeli police divers found the bodies of two missing sailors in the Mediterranean Sea, police reports.

Photo: Police find bodies of two sailors after fatal ship collision in the Mediterranean Sea

The two bodies were found inside the sunken ship, where the crewmen had apparently been trapped when their vessel was accidentally rammed by a Cypriot passenger ship on Thursday night, the Israel Police said in an official announcement. The discovery followed an intensive search that included six Israeli navy boats, several aircraft and divers.

The two dead men were the ship's first mate and engineer, both residents of Slovakia, according to police.

The cargo ship was anchored three kilometers (1.9 miles) from Israel's coast, near the port city of Haifa, when it was hit by the Cypriot passenger ship, Brig. Gen. Ram Rutberg of the Israeli navy told reporters on Friday.

Eleven of the cargo ship's 13 crew members managed to escape their sinking craft in a rescue launch lowered by the passenger liner and were picked up by the navy, Rutberg said.

The passenger ship was not seriously damaged and no one aboard was hurt, he said.

The cargo ship was Israeli-owned but the crew members are foreigners, some or all of them Slovaks, according to Israeli media reports.

The cause of the accident was not yet clear, Rutberg said.