6 bodies recovered, 2 remain missing after ship collision in south China

Six bodies have been recovered from sea a week after a collision between a fishing boat and a commercial ship off the southwestern coast of south China's Hainan Province, with two people remaining missing, the provincial maritime search and rescue center said Wednesday.

The fishing boat "Yuenan Aoyu 36062" collided with the Panamanian container ship "SITC DANANG" about 60 nautical miles west of Sanya Port at around 0:15am on April 3. The fishing boat sank and eight people on board went missing.

The sunken ship was located on April 6 thanks to technologies such as underwater robots and remotely operated submersibles. However, due to the rapid flow of water and the presence of fishing nets around the sunken ship, divers had been unable to enter the cabin.

On Tuesday morning, a search and rescue operation was successfully conducted with professional divers discovering six victims in the cabin. The bodies were salvaged from the water at around 8:10pm and then transported back to Sanya via a rescue vessel.

The search for the remaining two people is still underway.

As of 9pm on Tuesday, 140 search and rescue vessels, 18 aircraft, and more than 1,300 personnel had been dispatched for the search and rescue efforts, cumulatively covering an area of over 9,400 square nautical miles (about 32,000 sq km).