By RIA Novasti
Kiev : Ukrainian rescuers said on Monday they had called off their search for eight missing crewmembers of a Bulgarian cargo ship that sank earlier this month in the Azov Sea between Ukraine and Russia.
The Vanessa, carrying scrap metal, had 11 crew members of whom 10 were Bulgarians and one was Ukrainian. The vessel went down at 5.00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. GMT) on January 3, about 30 miles from the Kerch Strait.
The local emergency service said rescuers had combed all possible whereabouts of the remaining crewmen from the vessel, using various search methods.
Experts said there was no point in continuing the search operation, due to the sea ice.
One Bulgarian mechanic was rescued, and two bodies were found on the day the incident occurred, but further searches produced no results.
Last November a storm in the Kerch Strait sank four ships and split open an oil tanker. At least six sailors died. The incident resulted in about 2,000 metric tons of fuel oil spilling into the sea.