10 Missing in Shanghai Cargo Ship Accident
At least 10 people are missing after a cargo ship sank off the coast of Shanghai on Tuesday night.
The Changping, which was loaded with 5,000 metric tons of steel, collided with a bulk cargo ship, the Xinwang 138, while anchoring in a harbor not far from the Shanghai Port Wusong Passenger Center, according to The Paper, Sixth Tone’s sister publication.
The Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration is coordinating the search and rescue operations. Three people — the ship’s chief officer, head engineer, and a crew member — were rescued around an hour after the accident, which occurred at 11:39 p.m.
The ship was reportedly en route to Shanghai from Yingkou, a city in northeastern China’s Liaoning province.
Shanghai’s port is one of the largest in China. On Friday, its cargo handling capacity broke the world record by handling 40 million 20-foot equivalent units — a metric used for a cargo ship’s carrying capacity — in one year. Last month, Shanghai also opened a new automated cargo terminal, the largest in the world, at Yangshan Port, southeast of the city center.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Contributions: Bibek Bhandari; editor: David Paulk.
(Header image: Staff members from the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration stand by the scene of the accident at the Wusong Estuary, Shanghai, Jan. 3, 2017. Pan Jiefeng for CNS/VCG)