Search-and-rescue teams hope to be able to reach the ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia on Tuesday afternoon, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Monday, as he visited the crisis desk at the new port of Kyrenia.

He confirmed that the Turkish vessel the TCG Isin, which is capable of searching at depths of up to 3,000 metres below the surface of the sea, will arrive in the waters off Cyprus on Tuesday morning, and said that as such, “the boat, which sank to a depth of 514 metres, is planned to be reached tomorrow afternoon”.

When he reached the gate separating the Turkish Cypriot security forces command building from the rest of the port, he was confronted by one of the dozens of relatives of the 20 missing people who had gathered there.

The elderly gentleman told Ustel that his wife was among those unaccounted for after the ferry capsized, and that “they have sent me over here and over there” since the ferry sank as he searched for her.

“My family is gone. Do whatever is needed,” he said, with Ustel replying, “we will”, and the man then saying, “I want my family, whether they are dead or alive”.

Ustel later confirmed that funerals are being organised for those who are confirmed to have died as a result of the boat’s sinking, and said that the number of missing rose from an initial 17 on Sunday afternoon to 20 by Monday afternoon “as a result of comparing the ship’s passenger list with the names of those rescued”.

He also said that “search and rescue efforts have been expanded” and are continuing “on a 24-hour basis”, with “boats, helicopters, aircraft, and other search-and-rescue teams” all taking part.

“Efforts to reach our 20 missing people are continuing at full speed,” he said.