At least 2 killed, 2 missing after ships collide off Taiwan

[News_Editor]

At least 2 killed, 2 missing after ships collide off Taiwan

2011-10-28 22:44:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (BNO NEWS) -- At least two people were confirmed dead while two others remain missing after two ships collided on Friday off the western coast of Taiwan, officials said.

The collision, between the 997-ton 'Te Hsing' and the 34,610-ton 'Taroko' Liberian-registered vessel, happened at around 3:30 a.m. local time some 22 nautical miles (40.7 kilometers) off Penghu Island, which is an archipelago located off the western coast of Taiwan.

According to reports, the Te Hsing, which was carrying 13 crew members - eight Taiwanese, four Indonesian, and one Burmese - took off from Kaohsiung in southwestern Taiwan and was traveling toward the Taiwan-held island of Kinmen off China's southeastern coast.

Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau chief secretary Chang Kuo-ming confirmed that a Taiwanese and one Indonesian crew member had died at the scene after the collision. In addition, the captain of the vessel, a Taiwanese national, and another Indonesian have been reported missing.

Kuo-ming noted that the first 72 hours of search and rescue operations are the most crucial, adding that personnel were already working with the Ministry of National Defense and the Coast Guard Administration.

Meanwhile, crew members of the Taroko vessel, which was on its way from Hong Kong to Taichung Harbor in central Taiwan, were reported safe, officials from the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau told the state-run Central News Agency.

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