The witness of the Kyrenia-Mersin ship disaster described his moments of horror

People traveling on the ship, which set out from Kyrenia to Mersin and sank after a while, had a difficult time. Kürşat Bahadır from Hatay's Reyhanlı district, who witnessed the life-threatening situation on the ship moment by moment and tried to help people, told about the fearful moments.

"NO ONE COULD GO OUT BECAUSE THE DOORS WERE CLOSED"

Kürşat Bahadır stated that the doors to which people were heading were closed when the ship started to take on water, and that people had a hard time with the stampede. "After the ship started to move, water started to come out from under the seats and from the area where we were leaning on the waves as it hit the waves. People wanted to go back. The engine manager said he would meet with the captain. Then, when the wave hit, it hit the left side and the engine manager told us to run towards the back of the ship. No vests etc. were distributed, and their places were not shown. Everyone wanted to go back. "When he started running towards the unsinkable side, there was a stampede inside the ship. Because the doors were closed, people tried to break the doors. After the ship lay on its side, people started to slide towards the lying side and after that, no one could pull themselves up. After breaking the door, he went on deck with them," he said.

"I TRIED TO BREAK THE GLASS BECAUSE WE DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE ANYONE BEHIND"

Stating that he struggled to keep the people trapped inside the sinking ship alive, Bahadır explained that people struggled for minutes to break the glass, where they were screaming for help and waiting to be rescued, and said, "After we went up, most people were still living under the windows and waiting to be rescued. There were also deaths, but I tried to break the glass because we did not want to leave those waiting to be rescued behind. A mother under the glass was hugging her two children and saying, 'Please save my children.' At that moment, water was up to their bellies." After we saw them, we tried to break the window, but as far as I heard, the mother and her child were rescued. Apart from that, there were dead people under the glass, there were people trying to swim and holding on to the anchors. There was an uncle among the missing ones. After tying him with a chain, I said things like, "Don't be afraid, uncle, I am with you, I will not leave you." "The last wave hit him hard and he slipped and was dragged towards the sinking side of the ship," he said.