Nine missing after fishing boat capsizes in South Korea

Interior ministry says three crew members were rescued by a nearby boat, but nine others — including two foreigners — remained missing.

More than a dozen vessels and three aircraft from the coastguard and the navy had been deployed to search for the missing people.
Reuters

More than a dozen vessels and three aircraft from the coastguard and the navy had been deployed to search for the missing people.

Rescue workers were searching by sea and air for nine people missing after a fishing boat capsized in waters off South Korea's southwestern coast, according to authorities.

The interior ministry said on Sunday that the 24-tonne vessel overturned in waters off the coast of Sinan county late Saturday night.

Three crew members were rescued by a nearby boat, but nine others — including two foreigners — remained missing, the ministry added in a statement.

The nationalities of the individuals were still unknown.

More than a dozen vessels and three aircraft from the coastguard and the navy had been deployed to search for the missing people, it said.

Most of the crew are believed to have left the capsized boat, Yonhap news agency reported, citing Interior Minister Lee Sang-min.

President Yoon Suk-yeol urged maximum efforts for the rescue operation, ordering the mobilisation of "all available resources" to widen the search area, his office said.

In late January, a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship sank sank off the waters between South Korea and Japan killing at least eight people, at least six

A Chinese official said Thursday that eight people have died in the sinking of a cargo ship in waters between Japan and South Korea.

Six of the fatalities were Chinese citizens and the two others were from Myanmar.

There were 22 crew members — 14 from China and eight from Myanmar — on the 6,551-ton Jin Tian.

READ MORE: Death toll rises after Hong Kong- flagged ship sinks off coast of Japan

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