Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Six sailors remain missing after ship capsizal in E China

One body was found while five sailors remained missing after nine were saved from a vessel capsizal of a Panamanian-nationality vessel with 15 sailors in east China's Nanji Islands sea area on Monday, local authority said Tuesday.

The body was found at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday, said Li Hua, deputy director of the center.

The vessel named "Helios 3" reported its distress, saying they were "sinking", and called for help to the Municipal Maritime Rescue Center of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, at 2:09 p.m. Monday, Li said.

The tropical storm, caused by Jangmi, the 15th typhoon this year, had made two cabins of the vessel flooded, which lead to the sinking, Li said.

A rescue ship was sent to the reported site while warnings and rescue requires were sent to the nearby ships both in Chinese and English, he said.

Two of the sailors on the life raft were found and saved at 5:05 p.m. by a ship named "Cap Doukato" passing by, who received the signals from the official rescue center. Seven others were saved by rescuers on rescue vessel setting off at 2:44 p.m. from the neighboring Fujian Province.

The searching work was still undertaking, Li said.

The capsized vessel was a Korean ship registered in Panama, shipping 6,000 tons of woods from Burma to Jiaxing Port in Zhejiang, with sailors from Korea, Burma and Indonesia, Li said.

The Jangmi, which forced the evacuation of 500,000 people in Zhejiang and the neighboring Fujian and stranded 110 tourists on the Nanji Islands on Saturday, had been weakened to be tropical storm at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday. The typhoon alarm had been lifted, according to Zhejiang provincial meteorological observatory.

Source: Xinhua

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