Following the sinking of a Guinea-Bissau-flagged commercial ship with 14 crew members on board off the coast of the Kumluca district in Türkiye’s Mediterranean province of Antalya early Wednesday, three people have lost their lives, with another three injured, while the search for the missing crew members is underway, according to the latest media reports.

Antalya Governor Ersin Yazıcı announced after receiving notification that the foreign-flagged commercial ship, named "Joe 2," had sunk off the coast of Kumluca, search and rescue teams from the Coast Guard Command were dispatched to the region where the accident took place.

Yazıcı noted that two personnel on the ship were rescued from the sea surface by a Coast Guard helicopter and brought to the Finike State Hospital, while three others were saved by other vessels in the area.

Upon receiving information that the Guinea-Bissau-flagged commercial ship, which had been referred from the port of Iskenderun to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, had sunk in the open sea some 35 kilometers (22 miles) away from Kumluca at 3:47 a.m. local time (12:47 a.m. GMT), a general emergency call was made to all ships in the region.

Afterward, one Coast Guard corvette, seven coast guard boats, two helicopters, and a coast guard airplane were dispatched to the place of the accident.

According to the statement issued by the Coast Guard Command it was determined all of the crew were Syrian nationals.

"An investigation has been initiated by the Kumluca Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the incident," it added.