8 Rescued After Box Ship Sinks

Eight crew members were rescued after a Chinese feeder box ship sank off the Guangzhou port Wednesday morning.

The 42 meter (157 foot) Xin Hong 328 began taking on water in its engine room in the early morning of June 10. The vessel started to list heavily starboard and sank around 5:00am near Shajiao Anchorage of Guangzhou port. All eight crew members onboard were able to abandon the ship and were rescued by a coastguard vessel.

The Xin Hong 328 was loaded with 72 containers and was en route from Hong Kong to Nansha port in Guangzhou when the incident occurred. The Guangzhou MSA sent four patrol vessels to the accident scene to monitor vessel traffic in the area as floating containers posed a navigational hazard. Authorities have not reported any environmental pollution, but they continue to monitor the situation.  Work is underway to recover the containers and a salvage operation has been initiated.

The cause of the incident is unknown, but authorities have launched a formal investigation.