Four Chinese crew members were confirmed dead while five others
remain missing following a collision between two ships early Friday
morning off Japan's eastern coast, a spokesperson for the Chinese
Embassy in Tokyo said.?
The collision occurred at 5:10 AM (2010 GMT) about 10 kilometers
southwest of the Cape Inubosaki in the Chiba Prefecture, east of
Tokyo.
The Wei Hang 9, a 3,947-ton freighter registered in
Malta, with 21 Chinese crew members onboard sank after the
incident. The other ship, a Japanese-registered 499-ton freighter,
survived the accident and its crew remained unhurt.
The embassy has formed an emergency team to deal with the
aftermath, and contacted relevant Japanese departments to search
and rescue the missing. Two consulates from the embassy have
arrived at the hospital and visited the rescued sailors, some of
whom were slightly injured.
Japan Coast Guard ships and helicopters searched for the missing
Chinese crew members. The cause of the accident is still under
investigation.
The sunken ship set off from Shiogama in Japan's Miyagi
Prefecture and was bound for Dalian, a port in northeast China's Liaoning
Province, carrying 5,800 tons of scrap iron.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2005)