ISTANBUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A freighter ran aground in Istanbul's northern district of Beykoz early Monday morning, temporarily halting all passage through the Bosphorus Strait.
The 142-meter Palau-flagged cargo ship, named MKK-1, was traveling from Ukraine to Istanbul when it suffered a rudder malfunction while sailing in the strait, reported the Istanbul Governor's office.
Vessels from the Directorate General of Coastal Safety, tugboats and scuba teams have been dispatched to the site of the accident.
Passage through the strait was recently augmented with grain shipment from Ukraine as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in July last year. According to Turkish Defense Ministry statistics, 643 ships carrying 17.25 million tons of grain have passed through the Bosphorus Strait since then.
One of the busiest sea routes in the region, the Bosphorus Strait, can see up to 40,000 ships annually, requiring close monitoring and coordination from the Ship Traffic Services, a branch of the Directorate General of Coastal Safety.
This sea route, connecting the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea, has witnessed several mishaps.
In 2018, the Maltese-flagged Vitaspirit, a 225-meter freighter, crashed into a historic mansion along the Asian shores of the strait after an engine failure. It was among the most consequential misfortunes blocking traffic for hours. ■