The crew of the ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia on Sunday “locked the doors” to the boat’s passenger cabin as it began to take on water shortly after leaving Cyprus bound for Turkey, passengers who survived the accident have said.

Burak Arif Kaya, 23, who studies dentistry in Cyprus, told the north’s Tak news agency that as soon as passengers began to board the ferry at the new port of Kyrenia, they noticed that it appeared to be taking on water.

He said that when alerted to the matter, the captain, Mustafa Oz, said to the passengers, “how many years have I been a captain? I know this job better than you”.

“There was a noise from the front. Then, they came to calm us down. Soon after, the inside of the boat began to fill with water. No one was helping. They locked the doors. The captain and his first mate jumped off the boat,” he said.

Accusations that the captain had been the first person to get off the boat as it began to capsize had also been made by local tour boat operator Mustafa Koc, who had sailed to the capsizing ferry in an effort to rescue people who were on board.

Koc had told Turkish television channel NTV that far from being the last off the sinking ferry, as is maritime tradition, the captain had in fact been the first person to get off when the boat as it began to sink.

“The captain of the boat got off first. I had the captain on board my boat. I took him. I also had the first mate,” he said

Kaya, meanwhile, said that he had pulled a woman who is eight months pregnant, as well as three children, from the sinking boat, alongside two of his friends, 22-year-old Burak Can Keskin and 20-year-old Sudenaz Sonmez.

Keskin said of the ordeal that “after the ship set sail, it stopped and sank”.

“We broke the window and got out. Otherwise, we would not have been able to. There were a lot of waves. Even someone who knew how to swim could have drowned. Everyone was in trouble,” he said.

Meanwhile, Keskin’s father, Cem Keskin, said that his son had telephoned him as the boat began to sink.

“He said, ‘dad, we are drowning, our boat is sinking’ … We were so happy when he said hours later, ‘dad, we survived, we made it to the shore’. We are very happy to be able to see our son again”.

All eight members of the crew were arrested on Sunday, and remain in custody after appearing in court on Thursday.

There, a police representative said that Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500 after having made contact with “some people in Greece”, with his original Turkish licence having expired following a 10-year hiatus from the industry.

Additionally, it was claimed that the Turkish port of Tasucu, the ferry’s planned destination, had been closed on Sunday following storms in the region, and was due to remain closed until 3pm that day, but that Oz decided to set sail “regardless” at midday.

Turkish opposition New Party leader Ali Mahir Basarir had said on Wednesday that when he visited Cyprus after the accident, every single one of the survivors he had met had told him that passengers had asked Oz to return to port, but Oz had refused.

“During our hospital visits, the survivors said, ‘we begged the captain to return, but he did not listen to us’. Every survivor we met said that. There are allegations about inadequacies regarding the ferry, the technical team, the captain, the staff, all of them. We will follow this matter. We will follow this event with a delegation,” he said.