Rescuers in Hong Kong recovered two bodies Wednesday from the site of a sunken Ukrainian tugboat that went down after colliding with a Chinese mainland-registered freighter on Saturday, rescue officials said.
Several departments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, including the marine and the fire services, are still trying to locate the other 16 Ukrainian sailors that went missing in the shipwreck.
Frogmen finally managed to get in the cabin of the sunken vessel on Wednesday morning after making numerous dives over the past three days.
The first body was found around 1:00 in the early morning "near the door of the auxiliary engine room" and the second was found about 80 minutes later, the official broadcaster RTHK reported, without specifying where the second body had been found.
Police carried the two bodies away by the dawn, RTHK said, citing rescue officials.
The 2,723-ton Naftogaz 67, flying Ukrainian flag, was carrying 24 Ukrainian crewmen and a Chinese sailor when the accident occurred in the waters off the Lantau Island in China's southern special administrative region of Hong Kong amid foggy weather.
Six Ukrainians and the Chinese sailor were rescued within half an hour. The rest of the sailors, altogether 18, remained missing until the two bodies were found.
They were believed to be trapped inside the cabin of the tugboat, officials said. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government carried out massive rescue operations and divers tried to get in the cabin of the capsized vessel in spite of difficulties arising from currents and extremely poor visibility underwater.
Divers also knocked on the hull of the vessel, which was now stuck in the mud on the seabed about 35 meters underwater, but there had been responses. The Salvage Bureau of nearby mainland city Guangzhou had sent a 4,000-ton ship to help move the sunken tugboat to shallower waters to make diving efforts easier.
Authorities in Hong Kong were still investigating the cause of accident.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has called on his government to support the Chinese rescuers and the rescued sailors. Ukrainian Ambassador Sergei Alekseevich Kamyshev and a delegation led by Vice Minister of Transport and Communication Shevchenko Vasyl Vasylyovych have also arrived to follow up on the shipwreck.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2008)