Death Toll Rises to 7 in Taiwan Shipwreck

Rescue teams in Taiwan are still looking for survivors from a shipwreck off the northern port of Keelung. Three more bodies were discovered washed ashore, bringing the number of confirmed dead to seven after their freighter ran aground, including the ship's skipper.

Eleven crew members were either rescued or swam to safety. The search for three more sailors who are still listed as missing has recently been hindered by bad weather, according to the Coast Guard Administration.

The accident itself happened earlier in the week when the Jui Hsing ran aground shortly after leaving the port en route to China’s Fujan province. Heavy waves and fierce winds seemed to have ripped the vessel in two. The wreck was followed by an emergency cleanup operation by environmental authorities as they worried that hundreds of tones of oil may have leaked into the sea from the vessel’s fuel tanks. Workers used booms and absorbents to clean up the shoreline threatened by an oil slick.

The ship was an 11,500-tonne gravel ship Taiwanese-owned, but Panama-registered.