Fishing Boat and Cargo Ship Collide off South Korea Leaving 7 Dead

[Brief]  The South Korean Coast Guard aided by the Navy and other resources conducted a large search and rescue operation after a commercial fishing vessel and a small cargo vessel collided. The two vessels were southeast of Seoul when the collision happened early Monday, December 9 and the Coast Guard later found the fishing vessel capsized.

Reports indicate 15 Coast Guard vessels and six helicopters were all deployed in the search and rescue. The country’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo also intervened to order an emergency rescue operation.

Circumstances of the collision have not been reported by the Geungwang, a 29-ton fishing boat with a crew of eight capsized. Some reports indicate the other vessel was a sand barge and had 10 crewmembers aboard.

The Coast Guard located the overturned fishing boat and divers recovered the bodies of seven people from the ship. All of them were in cardiac arrest and later pronounced deceased at a local hospital. One person, an Indonesian crewmember from the fishing boat remains unaccounted for with the search having been ongoing to locate this person. The deceased included three from South Korea and four foreigners, but the reports did not specify nationalities.

The cargo ship was reported undamaged. There were no reports of injuries to the crewmembers.