Passenger boats crash in Bosphorus due to heavy fog causing minor injuries

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

A heavy fog reduced the visibility at the Bosphorus straight on May 4. DHA photo

Two passenger boats collided in the Bosphorus straight during the morning hours of May 4 due to heavy fog conditions in Istanbul, causing minor injuries. A ferry named “Kalamış" was hit by a boat owned by the private company Dentur off Sarayburnu, near the Topkapı Palace. Four people, one of them a tourist, suffered minor injuries according Doğan news agency.

The public ferry was serving one of the town’s busiest routes, connecting the Kadıköy dock on the Anatolian side with the Eminönü dock on Istanbul’s historic peninsula on the European side. Dentur’s boat, “Erdem Karadeniz,” was serving the route between the Kabataş dock on the European shores of the Bosphorus and the Prince’s Islands in the Marmara Sea on the Anatolian side. The boat turned back to Kabataş because of the damage,, company officials said. 

Sirens started to ring on the "Kalamış" ferry before the impact and passengers ran to the back of the boat. Despite the accident, the ferry managed to reach the dock. Many passengers shared on social media that the impact caused a big panic inside the ferry and fear that it could be a serious accident.
 
Following the incident, all ferry services have been temporarily suspended until better weather conditions.