Killer whales attacked and sank a couple’s yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain’s maritime rescue service said.
The two people issued an emergency call from a position about 14 miles off Morocco’s Cap Spartel and had to be rescued on Sunday morning after a group of orcas started smashing into their sailboat.
Water started flooding the boat after the orcas broke the rudder and punched a hole in the hull.
Rescuers scrambled a helicopter and the sailors were picked up by an oil tanker about an hour after the attack began, while their 15-metre-long yacht eventually sank.
It is the latest example of behaviour that has confused scientists and seen hundreds of vessels rammed in the area over recent years.
The incident adds to close to 700 interactions between vessels and orcas in or around Spanish coastal waters, according to records kept by the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), combining instances in which the animals approach boats and smash into them.
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