Marooned sailors rescued

Maritime police distribute food to sailors rescued from a sunken cargo ship off Taizhou, Zhejiang province, yesterday. All 23 sailors onboard were saved. Zhou Junjun

Twenty-three sailors were saved by a passing fishing boat yesterday morning after their cargo ship sank off the eastern coast of China, maritime rescue officials said yesterday.

The cargo ship New Hangzhou sank around 6 am, about 27 nautical miles away from Taizhou, a city in Zhejiang province, for reasons not yet known to the China Maritime Rescue Center.

Seven rescue vessels were sent to the scene as soon as the local rescue center learnt of the potential tragedy.

But thick fog blanketing the sea reduced visibility to just 200 meters, hampering the search and rescue.

Not until 10 am when a locally registered fishing boat passed the wreck were all the 23 sailors rescued after they had huddled together on a life raft.

The sailors, all Chinese, are well.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the ship, sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, was carrying 9,000 tons of steel from Tianjin Port en route to Vietnam.

The ship was owned by a Hong Kong-registered company, which was based in Zhoushan, an archipelago off Zhejiang province, Xinhua said.

Local maritime administration and boarder police are investigating the mishap.

Also off the Zhejiang coast, a local vessel carrying sand from Zhoushan to Ningbo was hit by another vessel and sunk around noon on Tuesday.

Among the nine crew, one sailor has been confirmed dead, two saved and six others were still missing yesterday afternoon.

"We have not given up the efforts of searching for the six missing sailors, but the hope is really dim now," said an official from the China Maritime Rescue Center on the condition of anonymity.

Source: China Daily