Ship sinks between Japan and South Korea, leaves 8 dead

At least eight crew members died after the ship sank in the East China Sea off Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture on Wednesday, Kyodo News Agency reported on Thursday. The 6,551-ton Jintian, carrying 22 crew members gave a distress signal and sank early on Wednesday.

Yesterday, the officer said that two crew members were found dead. Notably, all the six recently confirmed dead among the 13 rescued from a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, were either from China or Myanmar. Although none were sent to the hospital, contact has been established with their respective countries, the coast guard said.

According to the Kyodo News Agency, the vessel made the distress call around 11:15 pm from about 110 kilometres west of Japan's Danjo Islands in the East China Sea. A gale warning was in effect when the call was made. According to the coast guard, the cargo ship carried 14 Chinese and eight Myanmar nationals as crew members.

The vessel was en route to South Korea`s Incheon from Malaysia, carrying wood. The KySix crew members were rescued by the South Korean coast guard and two by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force. The two rescued by the ASDF were confirmed dead after being sent to a hospital via Nagasaki Airport.

The incident took place outside Japan's territorial waters, as per the report in Kyodo News Agency. The accident came as a cold snap hit much of Asia, with daytime temperatures in some of Japan`s islands nearest the rescue site reaching just 3 degrees Celsius. In 2020, a cargo ship with 43 crew and 6,000 cattle on board sank off southwestern Japan after being caught in a typhoon. Two crew survived. 

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