Ship Collision Off China's Guangdong Province

Two Sailors were confirmed dead, two others missing after an oil tanker sank after colliding with a cargo ship off the coast of Shantou in southern China's Guangdong province, a report said today. Nine other sailors were rescued and efforts are on to find the missing crew, 'China Daily' quoted a spokesman of the Shantou Maritime Safety Administration as saying. Work on cleaning up the leaking spill has started, but the size of the oil-affected area is still unknown, he said. The oil vessel, "Minghui 8," collided with the cargo ship, "Minhai 102" on Wednesday when it was about 7.5 nautical miles east of Nan'ao Island, of Shantou, while heading from East China's Fujian Province to Shantou. The oil tanker contained 975 tons of diesel, sank about 10 minutes after the collision, with all of its 13 crew members still on board. The cargo vessel, which was empty, was slightly damaged. The crew on board managed to save one sailor from the sunken vessel. A helicopter in Fujian Province found two bodies and airlifted an injured sailor to hospital.