Nine Chinese sailors missing after cargo ships collide off Japan
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 18 March, 2014, 8:41am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 18 March, 2014, 11:05am
Agence France Press in Tokyo and Stephen Chen in Beijing
A screenshot of a Google Map page showing Tokyo Bay and the Uraga Channel. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Nine Chinese crew members were missing after two cargo chips collided at the mouth of Tokyo Bay early Tuesday, Japan’s coastguard said.
The Panamanian-flagged Beagle III, a 12,630-tonne vessel, carrying steel coil, sank after colliding with the South Korean-registered Pegasus Prime in the Uraga waterway. The accident happened at about 3.10 am on Tuesday.
“Twenty crew members, all Chinese, were on board the Beagle, of whom 11 have been rescued,” a Japanese coastguard official said.
Patrol ships and a helicopter were continuing to search for the missing crew members about five hours after the accident, the official said. The crew on the 7,406-tonne Pegasus Prime were unhurt.
The sea was not believed to be rough at the time of the collision, according to the coastguard.
An officer on duty at China Search and Rescue Centre in Beijing told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday morning that they had received a briefing about the accident from the Chinese Embassy in Japan, and decided not to send a rescue vessel due to the sensitivity of the location.
"The accident happened in Japanese waters, only about four nautical miles off Japanese soil. Under circumstances like this, we would usually refrain from sending our own ships," he said on the phone.
The officer said he believed the Japanese side would do their best in the search and rescue operation, and added that China would cooperate fully in the ensuing investigation into the accident.
