46 rescued after Vietnamese ship sinks in South China Sea

SANSHA -- A total of 46 crew members of a sunken Vietnamese ship were rescued in waters near Yongshu Reef of the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea as of 9 pm Sunday, including one person rescued by the Vietnamese side, authorities in the South China city of Sansha said.

At 8:05 pm, the Chinese side transferred 41 rescued personnel in batches via life rafts from Chinese rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 115 to Vietnamese naval ship Truong SA-01. The remaining four rescued personnel are scheduled to be handed over on Monday.

At about 6:23 pm on Saturday, Nanhai Jiu 115, operated by Nanhai Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, spotted suspected signals for help at sea. After finding a life raft carrying multiple people waving clothes for help, the rescue vessel approached the raft to carry out rescue operations.

According to the Sansha maritime search and rescue authorities, all those rescued are Vietnamese nationals from the distressed vessel Khoi Nguyen 18, which is 69.9 meters long and 10.8 meters wide, carrying 62 people when the accident took place.

Six Chinese vessels, one rescue helicopter and seven Vietnamese vessels are still carrying out search and rescue operations at the scene.