Four of the Bulgarian sailors from the ship "Rojen" returned to Bulgaria late last night. They landed at Sofia airport about an hour after midnight on Thursday. The return to their home soil was a fact after a series of failed attempts to return to Bulgaria.

Most of the crew are still based in the Israeli port of Ashdod, close to the fighting.

On Wednesday evening, a technical problem caused the plane with the Bulgarians on board to return to Tel Aviv, 30 minutes after the start of the flight.

"On October 7, at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, we saw the first black smoke from Gaza. We had to move at once, after a bomb exploded 200 meters from us," assistant captain Stoicho Angelov told Nova TV minutes after returning to home. He also said that a total of 17 people remained on board the vessel - 12 Bulgarians and five Ukrainians.

"Rojen" was already half unloaded, but it is expected to leave the dangerous water area in a week at the earliest. That is why the evacuation of the crew was necessary.

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Информирайте се на Български - Novinite.bg