10 Indians still missing after ship sinks off Japan

Ten Indians are still missing after a cargo ship sank off the coast of Japan, the External Affairs Ministry said on Sunday.

According to a tweet by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, those missing are Captain Nair Rajesh Ramachandran, Second Officer Rahul Kumar, Third Officer Subramaniam Giridhar Kumar, Chief Engineer Rajput Shyam Singh, Fourth Engineer Subbiah Suresh Kumar, Junior Engineer Chauhan Ashok Kumar, Perumalsamy Gurumurthy, Malavaranan Silambarasan, Murugan Gowtham and Bevin Thomas.

The Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Emerald Star sank some 600 km south of Ishigaki island of Okinawa prefecture early Friday.

Japan's 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters based in Naha, Okinawa, said earlier that it received an emergency call from the 33,205-tonne the ship around 2 a.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT Thursday) on Friday.

The Japan Coast Guard said it had dispatched patrol boats and aircraft to rescue the missing crew, but the operations were hampered by a raging typhoon.

According to Kumar's statement, 11 crew members were rescued by the ship Densa Cobra, registered in Xiamen, China, and five more by Samarinda, registered in the Philippines.

--IANS

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