Hong Kong, An air and sea rescue mission
scoured choppy waters near Hong Kong Tuesday in a desperate search for 11 crew
still missing more than 24 hours after their Chinese cargo ship sank.
The Zhong Xing 2, which was laden with cement, went down after colliding with a container ship in the early hours of Monday just south of the island of Po Toi, on the edge of Hong Kong's maritime territory.A 46-year-old mainland Chinese crewman is so far the sole survivor of the ship's crew of 12 -- he was plucked from the sea by a passing fishing boa
The 97-metre (318 feet) Zhong Xing 2, which was carrying cement from the Chinese province of Hebei to the southern island of Hainan, collided with the Marshall Islands-registered MOL Motivator container ship -- more than three times its size.The cargo ship sank two nautical miles (around four kilometres) south-west,Fears over the safety of Hong Kong's waterways were sparked after a ferry crash in October 2012 that killed 39 -- the city's worst maritime disaster for more than 40 years.
The collision between a high-speed ferry and a pleasure boat shocked the Asian financial hub, which prides itself on its good safety record.Waters around the territory are notoriously crowded with hundreds of vessels -- from tiny wooden fishing boats to gigantic container ships -- plying the routes to and from one of the world's busiest ports. In other major incidents, a 190-metre long cargo ship sank 80 kilometres (50 miles) south-west of Hong Kong in August 2013, when a powerful typhoon generated towering waves.The 21-member crew of the bulk carrier Trans Summer were forced to abandon ship as the vessel tipped on its side and sank, triggering a rescue by two helicopter teams and a passing ship.
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