Sofia, Bulgaria: Drones hit two commercial ships in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria on Tuesday, sinking one of the vessels, the government said.
While the sailors from the sunken ship were missing, those from the second ship were rescued, Rumen Nikolov, head of the local rescue operations in Varna, was quoted as saying by the BNR public radio.
Rescuers were scouring the area for the missing sailors, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of the coastal city of Byala, the radio said.
The government said it would convene an emergency meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the strikes.
According to the Maritime.bg specialist site, the ship that sank was flying under a Togo flag.
The other ship was flying under a Palau flag, with 18 crew members evacuated by a Bulgarian ferry after the strikes.
Tuesday's strikes came a day after Romania reported that a grain ship had caught fire and sand near its coast, with two crew members killed, in an attack Ukraine blamed on Russia.
The war in Ukraine that Russia started in February 2022 has spread to the eastern Black Sea in recent months.
Turkey's Chamber of Maritime Commerce (IMEAK) said last month that since the start of the war, 226 civilian and commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea, the vast majority this year.
