Eight feared dead after cargo ships collide off eastern China

Eight feared dead after cargo ships collide off eastern China

2011-07-15 19:10:16 GMT+7 (ICT)

NANJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Eight crew members are missing and feared to have been killed after two cargo ships collided off the coast of eastern China on early Thursday morning, state-run media reported on Friday.

A statement from a regional maritime bureau said the accident happened at around 1.20 a.m. local time on Thursday when a Panama-registered container ship struck a Chinese cargo ship in waters about 170 kilometers (105 miles) off the coast of Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province.

The collision caused the Chinese cargo ship to sink, the statement said, causing all eleven crew members to fall into the sea. Three of them were rescued by the container ship, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The others remained missing as of Friday evening, and are feared to have drowned.

Xinhua did not report the names of either ships but said the container ship is owned by a Malaysia shipping company and was travelling to Singapore from the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. The Chinese cargo ship was owned by a shopping company in Wuhu and was traveling from the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou to the northern city of Tianjin.

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