Oil disaster as five die in Black Sea storm

Five sailors have been killed in violent storms which have battered ships in the Azor and Black seas.

As many as ten ships sank or ran aground, including an oil tanker, when waves reached 5.5m (18ft) high in the Kerch strait.

The bodies of three sailors from the Nakhichevan freighter, which shed its load of sulphur, washed ashore.

Two members of a Russian freighter carrying metal near Sevastopol, on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, were also drowned.

Rescue teams have plucked 35 crew members to safety but the search continues for another 18 who are still missing in stormy conditions.

Russian experts said the sulphur did not pose a threat to the environment, unlike the 'disastrous' effect of a 2,400-tonne fuel oil spill from the Volganeft 139 tanker.

Nikolai Lityuk, of Russia's emergencies ministry, said the navy had been called in to help with the clean-up and rescue mission.

'Our main aim is to find the people who are missing. The second objective is to deal with the consequences of the oil spill,' he added.

Clean-up workers have found birds covered in a treacly mixture of oil and seaweed, leaving them unable to fly.

Wild dogs have been taking advantage of their plight and a number of birds have been found with their heads ripped off. Meanwhile, officials claimed storm warnings issued on Saturday were ignored by captains.

The Volganeft 139 was also reportedly designed to transport oil on rivers – not the open seas.