Teams recover bodies of students hit by waves in Black Sea

TRABZON

Search teams have recovered the bodies of two high school students who were swept into the sea while trying to capture footage of the waves reaching meters high amid fierce storms in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.

Rescue operations for 16-year-old Emir Berke Aşık and Uğurcan Korkmaz were initiated immediately on Nov. 27 by divers and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) rescue teams.

The operation, spearheaded by an approximately 100-member team and other teams from neighboring cities, has been diligently underway for four days amid the risks posed by the currents in the Black Sea.

On the fourth day of the search efforts, approximately 2 kilometers away from the incident site, the personal belongings of the students, including a coat, mobile phone, pen and a sum of money, were discovered.

In light of this finding, the teams intensified their search efforts at this particular location.

One day after the discovery of the students' belongings, Korkmaz’s body was located in a rocky area on the shoreline approximately 100 meters from the presumed location of his disappearance.

Hours later, the governor’s office announced that the teams also recovered the body of Aşık as well.

"It has been five days since the search operations began. We are genuinely saddened. Not being able to find them was a sorrow for all of us. Today, the search teams reached one of the bodies. The examination confirmed that the deceased was our student named Uğurcan Korkmaz," Trabzon Governor Aziz Yıldırım told reporters before the team reached the body of the other student.

An inspector was sent to the students' school on suspicion of administrative negligence for being on the shore at a time when the students should have been at school, and an investigation was launched into the incident, the governor noted.

Emphasizing that local authorities and AFAD had issued a storm warning to the city before the incident, he urged residents to take these warnings seriously and take appropriate precautions.