Ursa Major dry cargo carrier sinks in Mediterranean Sea, 14 crewmembers rescued, 2 missing - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Russia's Ursa Major dry cargo ship sank in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea following an explosion in the engine room, the Russian Foreign Ministry's crisis management center said, adding two Russian crewmembers remain unaccounted for after the incident.

"The Russian dry cargo carrier Ursa Major (owned by SK-South) sank in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea after an explosion in the engine room," the ministry's crisis management center said on its Telegram channel.

There were 16 crewmembers, all of them Russian citizens, aboard the vessel, it said. Fourteen of them were rescued and brought to the port of Cartagena. Two are missing.

"On-duty personnel of the crisis management center, the Transport Ministry's situation center and Russian missions abroad are closely monitoring the situation," it said.

Spanish media reported earlier that the Russian commercial vessel Ursa Major had sunk in international waters between Spain and Algeria.

The Ursa Major ro-ro/lo-lo class vessel belonged to the fleet of Oboronlogistics, which operates the ferry route linking Ust-Luga and Baltiysk. It was the largest vessel in the operator's fleet. Both Oboronlogistics and SK-South have declined to comment on the situation.

According to December 20 information on the operator's website, the Ursa Major was en route to the Far East, carrying 380-tonne port cranes, needed for the expansion of the terminal in Vladivostok, and 45-tonne hatch covers for new icebreakers.

The Ursa Major previously transported cargo from Ust-Luga to Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad region and back. The vessel was also used for commercial transportation to Asia, the Middle East and via the Northern Sea Route.

The Ursa Major, built in 2009, was a heavy lift cargo vessel, as it was equipped with two cranes able to lift 350 tonnes each. It had a speed of up to 14 knots, was 142 meters long and 23 meters wide with a 7-meter draft.