Four S’poreans missing after tugboat sinks in Yangtze river
Rescue workers carry an injured person after a tug boat sank in the Yangtze River, near Jingjiang, Jiangsu province, January 16, 2015. More than 20 people are missing after a tug boat sank in the river on Thursday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Friday quoting local authorities. Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE — Twenty-two people, including four Singaporeans, remained missing more than a day after a Singapore-registered tugboat undergoing testing sank on Thursday afternoon in China’s Yangtze river. As at press time, three persons were rescued from the 25 people who were on board.
Two of the missing Singaporeans were employees of Sembcorp Marine whose tug-towing subsidiary, Jurong Marine Services, had planned to charter the China-made vessel JMS Delta. The oil rig builder has a third employee, an Indonesian, on board who is also among those missing. The three workers were witnessing the sea trial which is conducted in the waters off Jingjiang, which is in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu.
A search and rescue mission is underway but the rescue work was difficult because of swift currents and low water temperature, Xinhua news agency reported.
Sembcorp Marine said it has informed the employees’ families and has made arrangements for them to travel to Shanghai. “Management will continue to provide support and comfort and updates on the search mission to the families,” it said.
China media quoted the provincial government as saying that the boat had been undergoing trials without notifying the authorities, and without first reporting the condition of the vessel.
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) confirmed that four Singaporeans were among those missing. Sembcorp Marine and the MFA were unable to provide more details of the missing Singaporeans.
One of the missing persons’ sister wrote about her anxiety on her blog and on Facebook.
Ms Christina Chung wrote that she would be flying to China with her family yesterday evening. “We have yet to hear of any news about him,” she said.
The MFA said it is in touch with the families of the Singaporeans and the companies they are working for, and Singapore’s Consulate-General officers in Shanghai are at the incident site providing consular assistance to the next-of-kin. “We are also working closely with the Chinese authorities on the ongoing search and rescue operations,” the ministry said.
The tugboat was manufactured in October by Chinese company Anhui Bengbu Shenzhou Machinery. Eight foreigners — four Singaporeans, one Indonesian, one Malaysian, one Indian and one Japanese — were reportedly among those still missing.
Mr Wang Chenkai, one of the three people rescued, told Xinhua news agency that he had been on board as the interpreter for a Japanese engineer.
“Only the two of us were in the cockpit,” he said. “We had just finished (a test) of the main engine of the boat when the vessel suddenly slid over. Water immediately flowed in.”
He added that he had survived by holding on to a hydraulic pump as the boat capsized.
