At least five sailors remained missing after a Chinese fishing boat collided with a South Korean cargoship and sank off South Korea's southern coast early Saturday, South Korea's Coast Guard told Xinhua.
A Chinese fishing boat with at least seven sailors aboard sank on waters about 370 km south of South Korea's southern most island of Mara shortly after colliding with South Korea's 6,049-ton cargoship "Bright Ace" at 8:40 a.m. local time Saturday (2340 GMT, Friday), the Korea Coast Guard's Jeju Bureau said.
"Among 7 sailors on the Chinese fishing boat, two were rescued and both are confirmed in good health condition. But the rest of the sailors remain missing," Kim Moon-chol, officer of the Korea Coast Guard Jeju Bureau, told Xinhua by phone.
The rescued sailors are now on Chinese fishing boats assisting the rescue work on the site, Kim said.
The Korea Coast Guard dispatched two vessels, including a 1,500-ton vessel and a 3,000-ton vessel, to the spot from Jeju island Saturday afternoon to deal with the accident.
Kim said the two vessels arrived at the spot at about 22:00 local time (1300 GMT) and began to search for the five missing sailors in the area.
"The coast guard will try their best to search the missing sailors in the area," Kim said, adding the identity of the rescued and missing sailors are still unclear.
"The coast guard vessels on the spot told us the weather there is not so good due to fog and waves of 2.5 to 3 meters high," Kim said.
The cause of the accident is still unclear.
According to He Ying, chief consul and head of the Chinese consular office in South Korea's Kwangju city, the sunken fishing boat is identified as "Zhepuyu 368" with seven crew members.
The consular office and the Chinese embassy are closely cooperating with the South Korean side and urged the South Korean side to search for the missing sailors, he said.
The cargoship "Bright Ace", which left South Korea's Masan port Thursday night with 6,000 tons of steel materials, was heading for Singapore when colliding with the Chinese boat, local media said.
Source: Xinhua
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