Tourist group takes sailors hostage, attempts to cross to Greece’s Kos from Turkey’s Bodrum

BODRUM

A group of people on board a tourist boat in the Aegean resort of Bodrum attempted to illegally cross to the Greek island of Kos after taking the crew hostage early on June 4, Doğan News Agency has reported.

The 10-meter polyester service boat was carrying 16 Iranians and 22 local tourists on their way back from a nightclub to the hotel in the Gümbet neighborhood at around 3 a.m. when the boat started experiencing difficulties.

The captain of the boat immediately requested assistance from the Coast Guard while also contacting the manager of a boat coop to send another boat to rescue the group.

Sailors Veli Kantarmış and Recep Olgun subsequently headed to the scene on board a boat with a capacity for 45 people.

The group was successfully transferred to the new boat but some local tourists claimed that the crew had arrived too late to the rescue, provoking a brawl.

Kantarmış and Olgun were beaten and locked in the cabin, as the boat headed toward Kos island in Greece.

Kantarmış called his brother for help while the Coast Guard shot across the bow to prevent the boat from crossing the maritime border.

The duo was rescued and the boat was towed to port. Police subsequently detained 14 people over the incident.

Eight people were wounded during the brawl and sent to hospital.

“An intoxicated group on the boat took my brother and a staff member hostage. They later attempted to hijack the boat to the Greek territorial waters. However, they also put the lives of other tourists in danger,” said Kantarmış’s brother, Enver Kantarmış, adding that they filed a criminal complaint against the tourists.