(Beijing) The sinking of a freighter off the coast of Japan killed eight people, including six Chinese nationals, according to a new report announced Thursday on Chinese state television.
the JinTianflying the Hong Kong flag and carrying Chinese and Burmese crew members on board, sent out a distress signal late Tuesday evening.
It was about 110 kilometers west of the uninhabited Danjo Islands, a remote and uninhabited micro-archipelago in southwestern Japan, and nearly 150 km south of the South Korean island of Jeju.
The ship’s captain used a satellite phone to notify the South Korean Coast Guard that he and his crew would be abandoning the sinking ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to the Jeju Coast Guard.
Several Japanese Coast Guard and military ships and planes, as well as South Korean Coast Guard and private vessels, took part in the search operation which resulted in the recovery of 13 of the 22 crew members.
Lu Guijun, consul general of China in the Japanese city of Fukuoka (south), told Chinese public television CGTN on Thursday that among these 13 people “eight deaths have been confirmed, of which six are Chinese”.
“Five of them – including four Chinese crew members – are not in mortal danger,” he added. “We express our deepest condolences to the unfortunate victims.”
The Japanese authorities have not yet confirmed the report given by the Chinese diplomat, indicating Thursday to AFP that they could only say that nine people are still missing and that, of the 13 others recovered, two are dead.
Chinese diplomats visited the Nagasaki Coast Guard, the consulate in Fukuoka said, where they laid flowers for the deceased crew members and expressed condolences.
They also visited the survivors, conveying a message from the Chinese ambassador to Japan and providing them with clothes, food and drink, the consulate said.
The crash happened as a cold snap hit much of Asia, with daytime temperatures in some of the Japanese islands closest to the scene of the rescue barely reaching 3C.
the JinTianwith a capacity of 6,651 tons, is registered in Hong Kong, the Japanese coast guard said.
In 2020, a freighter with 43 crew and 6,000 cattle on board sank off southwestern Japan after being caught in a typhoon. Two crew members had survived.