Japanese coastguards discovered on Friday five bodies inside a Chinese fishing boat that capsized off the western coast of Japan the previous day after colliding with a Hong Kong oil tanker.
“We found five bodies inside the ship… we’re still continuing our search-and-rescue operation for the remaining seven,” a Japanese coastguard official told AFP on Friday.
Japan has deployed three patrol boats to search for the missing crew, after responding to a plea for help from their Chinese counterparts.
The sea mishap occurred 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
The 290-ton Chinese vessel, “Lurong Yuanyu 378”, had 16 crew members in total. Four of them have already been rescued.
The 63,294-ton Hong Kong-flagged tanker, “Brightoil Lucky”, was carrying 21 crew members, who are believed safe now.