Chinese crew among 13 missing off Japan after cargo ship collision
- The cargo ship sank shortly after the collision which occurred around 10pm Saturday, about 12km off the coast of Rokkasho
- Vessel was carrying 3,000 tones of scrap metal to South Korea when it collided with a fishing boat
More than a dozen crew members of a cargo ship are missing after it collided with a fishing boat in waters off northern Japan, a coastguard official said Sunday.
The 1,989-tonne Belize-flagged cargo ship Guoxing 1 was carrying some 3,000 tonnes of iron scrap and rapidly took in water after the hit, Japan Coast Guard spokesman Tomoyuki Hanzawa said.
The collision between the Guoxing 1 and a 138-tonne Japanese fishing boat happened around 10pm Saturday and the cause was unknown, he added.
The Guoxing 1 had a crew of 14: seven Chinese, five Vietnamese and one Filipino.
One Vietnamese crew member was rescued by a nearby ship, while the 15 Japanese crew members of the fishing boat are safe.
The Chinese consulate general in Sapporo had “immediately activated the emergency response mechanism and contacted relevant Japanese departments to obtain information”, Xinhua reported.
Japan had dispatched six aircraft, six patrol ships and dozens of rescuers to carry out rescue operations, the consulate general said.
Some floating objects have been found in the sea area of the collision, but it is not yet known whether they were related to the sunken ship, Xinhua reported.
Agence France-Presse and Kyodo
