(CNN) A reconnaissance ship from the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet has sunk after colliding with another vessel off the coast of Turkey, Russian state media said Thursday. All 78 crew members on board the 1,560-ton Liman were rescued alive and well, the state-run RT news outlet said, citing Turkish coast guard officials and Russian authorities.
The Russian crew members are being transferred from a Turkish coast guard boat to a Russian ship, RT said. The Liman's hull was breached in a collision near the Bosphorus Strait with a Togo-flagged ship carrying livestock, Russia's state-run Tass news agency said. That vessel was not damaged and did not need help.
An earlier statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said the Liman had been breached below the waterline on the starboard side and that its crew were fighting to keep it afloat, state-run news outlet Sputnik reported.
The collision occurred just before noon Moscow time (5 a.m. ET) about 25 miles northwest of the Bosphorus Strait, the statement said.
RT said the Liman was a Soviet-era ship commissioned in the 1970s and built in Poland. "It is mostly unarmed, but carries a radar station, a hydroacoustic detector and other reconnaissance equipment needed to track surface ships and submarines," it said.
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