Turkey stops shipping traffic on the Bosphorus after discovering a “foreign body”

The Bosphorus is closed due to a suspected mining hazard. “The ships are being asked to wait at the two entrances to the strait,” said an employee at the Coastal Safety Directorate.

The Bosphorus is an important strait that connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. On average, more than 40,000 ships cross the Bosphorus strait each year, the directorate said.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish Defense Ministry said a team of divers had discovered a “mine-like object” floating north of Istanbul. The search is now underway for more mine-like objects along the 33-kilometre-long Bosphorus. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that helicopters were also used.

Last week, Russia reported hundreds of Ukrainian mines floating in the Black Sea. They were said to have been tied up with cables in Ukrainian ports, but were released due to bad weather. The authorities in Ukraine denied and said they had no information about the mines drifting towards the sea.