Three Chinese sailors died and nine others went missing early Monday morning after their ship collided with a South Korean vessel and sank in Port of Incheon, the Republic of Korea (ROK), according to the Chinese Consulate in Seoul.

A cargo ship of Tuvalu with 17 Chinese sailors on board collided with an ROK cargo ship at 4:05 a.m. Monday (1905 GMT Sunday) in Port of Incheon, leading to the sinking of the Tuvalu ship. All 17 Chinese sailors aboard the ship fell into the water.

Three sailors were found dead while nine others were missing. A Chinese fishing ship, TENG YUAN, rescued the five other sailors.

The five are Wang Xiaojian, Wang Bo, Wang Haijun, Li Hao and Xia Hailin, according to the Chinese Consulate. The rescued were sent to a hospital in Incheon immediately.

The rescue operation is still going on and the Chinese Embassy in the ROK has sent officials to Incheon to help deal with the accident.

The Incheon Coast Guard Office and the South Korean navy have sent a total of 40 warships and rescue boats as well as one helicopter to the scene to conduct searching operation, according to Chinese Consul General Zhang Xin.

They have already extended their searching area, trying to find the nine missing Chinese sailors, Zhang said.

Zhang, who went to Incheon to visit the five rescued earlier in the day, told Xinhua only one of the rescued sailors suffered injury in head, while the four others are in good condition.

However, the Chinese official hinted the chance for the survival of the missing is slim since most of the sailors were in deep sleep when the accident took place.

"The accident happened so abruptly. The ship sank into water within one minute, and it seemed those who slept deeply had no time to escape from the ship," Zhang quoted a survivor crew member as saying.

The South Korean cargo ship only suffered light damage and there were no reports of casualties from the South Korean vessel.

Source: Xinhua