Unexploded shells in Black Sea prompt closure of resorts in Turkey
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Authorities have discovered 28 unexploded shells as they continue to investigate the hazard along Sile's shoreline.
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People relax on a beach on the Black Sea coast in the Sile district of Istanbul province, Turkey on July 28, 2022. (AFP)
28 unexploded artillery shells were discovered at the Black Sea resort of Sile near Istanbul, in northeastern Turkey on Tuesday, Sputnik reported.
All beaches in the area were shut down as authorities investigated the public hazard. On Monday the Sofular beach in Sile was closed down after 28 unexploded shells were discovered in the area.
"At the moment, all beaches in Sile are closed. The reopening date is yet to be determined," a source told Sputnik.
Investigations remain ongoing, said the source, adding that there is a possibility that more unexploded shells could be found.
A diving team of the Turkish underwater defense forces was able to retrieve eight of the objects and took them to the SAS Group Commands for identification and disposal, the force said in a statement.
The underwater defense forces announced that it would dispose of the munitions on Wednesday after taking the necessary safety measures to do so.
At the start of Russia's Special Military Operation Moscow warned that mines that the Ukrainians had planted in the Black Sea against Russia could drift as far as the Strait of Bosphorus and the Mediterranean Sea.
"After the start of the Russian special military operation, Ukrainian naval forces had deployed barriers of mines around the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny," said the FSB security service in a statement, noting that the mines are "dilapidated" and were manufactured in the first half of the 20th century.
Storms in the western Black Sea have slashed the cables of some of the mines free-floating in the area, as they were pushed by wind and currents.
Given the direction of the currents, "the floating of the mines toward the Bosphorus and then on to the Mediterranean is not excluded."
Read more: Ukraine cannot defuse Black Sea mines, charges NATO with task: Moscow
