Body found of sailor from the sunken freighter near Lesvos; 12 crew still missing

The body of a crew member of the freighter 'Raptor' that sank off the island of Lesvos in the East Aegean early on Sunday was found by a nearby boat on Sunday afternoon, bringing the number of missing crew down to 12 after a survivor was rescued in the morning.

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The freighter sailed under the Comoros Islands flag and is managed by a company based in Lebanon. It was carrying salt from Egypt to Istanbul with 14 crew - 1 Indian national, 11 Egyptian nationals and 2 Syrian nationals. The man rescued earlier is one of the Egyptian nationals and he was transferred to the hospital of Mytilini on Lesvos.

At 07:00 on Sunday morning the ship had notified it had a mechanical failure. At 08:20, the captain said the ship was listing and activated an emergency call to nearby ships. The ship then disappeared off radars.

The search and rescue efforts are ongoing in very rough seas, after a weather phenomenon that brought winds registering up to 9 and 10 on the Beaufort scale at sea.

Assisting the search and rescue in the area are 8 nearby ships, a frigate of the Hellenic Navy and a helicopter.