Death toll from capsizing of Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship rises to 8 crew members with 9 still missing
- Dead among 13 crew members picked up in joint operation between Japanese and South Korean coastguards
- Capsized vessel, Jin Tian, sank early on Wednesday about 110km west of remote Danjo Islands in Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture
The death toll from the capsizing of a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship in waters between South Korea and Japan has risen to at least eight crew members, including six Chinese nationals, with nine others still missing.
The dead were among 13 crew members recovered on Wednesday in a joint operation between the Japanese and South Korean coastguards after the cargo ship capsized in bad weather. The condition of the other five seafarers was deemed not life-threatening, authorities said on Thursday.
“According to our knowledge, so far 13 crew members have been recovered, five of them are not in a life-threatening condition, among them, four are Chinese nationals,” Lyu Guijin, the Chinese consul general in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, said in a television interview.
“Eight crew members were confirmed to be dead, among them, six were Chinese crew members.”
The consulate had on Wednesday reported that two crew members, including a Myanmese national, had died.
Lyu said a working team had been dispatched to Nagasaki to visit the four surviving Chinese crew members, with arrangements made for their return home.