Two dead, Nine Missing After Ship Sinks between Japan and South Korea

Two crew members were killed and nine others are missing when their cargo ship sank in rough waters between Japan and South Korea on Wednesday, Japanese officials said.

Coast guards from both countries, joined by military aircraft and a private vessel, captured 13 of the 22 people on board the Jin Tian, ​​a Japanese coast guard official said.

But Japanese medical officials later confirmed that two of those evacuated were dead, the official told AFP.

He said the crew were from China and Myanmar, but the exact identities of the dead, rescued and missing were not clear.

“Our ships will remain in the area and will continue the search operation throughout the night,” he added.

Jin Tian sent out a distress signal late Tuesday from a position about 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of the remote and uninhabited Danzo Islands in far southwest Japan.

Japan’s coast guard said three private vessels were in the area and helped rescue the five stranded crew members.

Several ships and aircraft from Japan’s coast guard and military, as well as the South Korean coast guard and a private vessel, were involved in the search operation.

The Jeju Coast Guard said the ship’s captain used a satellite phone to tell South Korean coast guard officials that he and the crew would leave the sinking early Wednesday morning.

Thereafter contact with the crew was lost.

The accident occurred as most of Asia was hit by a cold wave, with daytime temperatures reaching only three °C (37 °F) on some of Japan’s islands near the rescue site.

Japan’s coast guard said the 6,651-tonne Jin Tian is registered in Hong Kong.

In 2020, a cargo ship with 43 crew and 6,000 head of cattle sank in southwestern Japan after being caught in a typhoon. Two crew survived.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)