It is not yet clear why the truck crashed
At least eight sailors, including six Chinese nationals, have died after a cargo ship sank off the coast of Japan, Chinese state television reported today.
The Jintian sent out a distress signal late Tuesday night while in waters 110 kilometers west of the remote and uninhabited Danjo Islands in southwestern Japan.
Ships and aircraft from the Japanese Coast Guard and Navy, South Korean Coast Guard vessels, as well as commercial vessels participated in the search and rescue operation, which allowed 13 of the 22 crew members to be found and retrieved.
But Lu Guijun, China’s consul general in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, told Chinese public television network CGTN today that of those 13 sailors, eight have been “confirmed” to be dead, “among them six Chinese.”
“The lives of the remaining five — including four Chinese — are not in danger,” he added.
“We express our sincerest condolences” to the victims and their families, he added.
Japanese authorities have yet to confirm the account given by the Chinese diplomat, telling AFP earlier today that what they could confirm was that nine people were missing and that of the 13 recovered, two were dead.
It is not yet clear why the 6,651-tonne, Hong Kong-registered truck carrying timber wrecked. Strong winds were blowing in the area when Jintian issued the distress signal.
RES-EMP
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