Minister of Defence told BNT: A floating sea mine has been discovered and defused near Kamchia(PHOTOS)

Bulgaria's naval forces yesterday, June 30, discovered a floating sea mine near the Bulgarian coast, near Kamchia," Bulgaria’s Ministerof Defence, Dragomir Zakov told BNT on July 1.

In his words, the mine was identified by a merchant ship.

"It has been defused and there is no threat to shipping," Dragomir Zakov added.

An alert about a floating sea mine was received at the Naval Forces Headquarters at 3.10 p.m. on June 30 by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, the Navy press centre also confirmed. The mine was spotted 27 nautical miles east of the mouth of the Kamchia River by the Liberia-flagged motor vessel Monterey (pictured below).

After calculations by experts at the Naval Headquarters (wind speed and sea current), the Panther helicopter from the Tchaika naval helicopter base and the Priboy minesweeper from the Flotilla of Combat and Auxiliary Ships were raised at 15.30. At 17.35 the helicopter crew detected the mine and transmitted the coordinates to the border police ship “Kavarna”.

Fast cutter 213 crewed by midshipman Valentin Zenginov and petty officer II degree Kaloyan Krastev and a team of divers - captain-lieutenant Deyan Stefanov, officer candidate Nikolay Penchev, chief petty officer Krasimir Krastev with the leader captain I rank Daniel Todorov - commander of the division of auxiliary ships, makes a passage to the place guarded by the border police ship "Kavarna". Military specialists classify the mine as an anchor mine, type "Yam", brought into combat position. At 8.50 p.m. the mine was destroyed by a controlled explosion by a group of divers-bombers.

Naval forces continue to maintain readiness for survey and mine countermeasures to ensure free navigation in Bulgarian maritime spaces.

Images by Bulgaria's Naval forces