Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
TOKYO (AP) - Two cargo ships collided south of Tokyo early Friday, killing five people in one of the vessels, Japan's coast guard said. Officials were searching for a sixth missing crew member.
The Japanese-registered Eifuku Maru No. 18 capsized after it crashed with the Sierra Leone-registered Jia Hui about 11 kilometers (7 miles) west of Izu Oshima island, coast guard spokesman Yoshiyuki Terakado said.
The coast guard sent patrol boats and helicopters to search for the crew. Five bodies were found inside the capsized boat late in the afternoon and their hearts were no longer beating, said Koji Takarabe, another coast guard spokesman.
The Jia Hui's 12 Chinese and one Malay crew were unharmed, and were being questioned aboard the ship about what had happened. It was still unclear what caused the collision, Takarabe said.
The 498-ton Eifuku Maru was traveling from Nagoya, central Japan, to Ichikawa, east of Tokyo. The 2,962-ton Jia Hui was headed from Kawasaki, Japan, to Busan, South Korea.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
