Watch: Rare Footage Of Sea Drone Attack On Container Ship Off Bulgaria

A Greek-owned container ship chartered by an Israeli shipping company has sunk in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria after being attacked by a sea drone on Wednesday.

All 18-crew members have been rescued, but the attack was actually filmed - reportedly by someone aboard the stricken vessel, as well as footage captured by a nearby French reconnaissance patrol sent to investigate the incident - resulting in some dramatic and frightening images.

The vessel has since been identified as Liberian-flagged Contship Jet, said to have been carrying over 400 shipping containers en route to Romanian port of Constanța from Haifa, Israel.

More footage, apparently captured by a crew member just before the strike occurred, was released via Bulgarian news outlets.

The video featured rare close-up images of an unmanned surface vessel approaching the container ship at a high rate of speed moments before impact.

The large vessel sinking, in footage that emerged and widely circulated Thursday...

It's as yet unclear who was behind the vessel attack. Over the last several months, Ukraine and Russia have been trading blows with maritime attacks in the Black Sea.

Reuters in its reporting points the finger at Russia:

It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attack, which added to growing concerns about the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine, opens new tab on commercial shipping in the area. Ambrey, a global maritime risk management firm, has analysed footage, reportedly ​filmed on a handheld device by a crew member on board, showing a matte black, 5-6 meter-long unmanned surface vehicle (USV) ​approaching the vessel at high speed. The USV was likely a variant of a Russian drone, said Tomas Alexa, a senior analyst at Ambrey ‌Analytics, adding ⁠that its manoeuvres indicated it was controlled remotely.