Lebanon rescuers seek survivors from capsized ship

UN peacekeepers' vessels and Lebanese navy boats searched on Friday for more survivors from a cargo ship carrying more than 80 people and livestock that sank in the Mediterranean off Lebanon.

A Lebanese army statement said 38 sailors had been rescued and four bodies recovered since the Panamanian-flagged Danny FII capsized in stormy weather on Thursday.

It said three UN peacekeeping vessels, Lebanese army boats and Cyprus-based British military helicopters were involved in overnight rescue efforts, which it said were continuing after day break.

Naval sources said that high waves and strong winds were hampering the search in the area where the ship sank 17 km (11 miles) off the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.

Most of the survivors were brought to shore and taken to Tripoli hospitals.

The ship was transporting 43,000 sheep from Uruguay to Tartous in Syria. The crew were mostly from the Philippines and Pakistan, the sources said.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has a naval task force that monitors Lebanese waters to prevent weapons from reaching the country's Hezbollah guerrilla force, which fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Two of the search ships were German and the third was Italian.

Last week, an Israel-bound Turkish cargo ship capsized in international waters some 80 km (50 miles) off the Lebanese coast and seven of its crew went missing.