Ten Indians are still missing after a cargo ship sank off the coast of Japan, the External Affairs Ministry said on Sunday.
According to a tweet by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, those missing are Captain Nair Rajesh Ramachandran, Second Officer Rahul Kumar, Third Officer Subramaniam Giridhar Kumar, Chief Engineer Rajput Shyam Singh, Fourth Engineer Subbiah Suresh Kumar, Junior Engineer Chauhan Ashok Kumar, Perumalsamy Gurumurthy, Malavaranan Silambarasan, Murugan Gowtham and Bevin Thomas.
Search for missing 10 crew members still ongoing using aircraft and vessels. We will keep posting regular updates on further developments.
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) October 16, 2017
The Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Emerald Star sank some 600 km south of Ishigaki island of Okinawa prefecture early Friday.
Japan's 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters based in Naha, Okinawa, said earlier that it received an emergency call from the 33,205-tonne the ship around 2 a.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT Thursday) on Friday.
Officials from our Guangzhou Consulate visited the injured Indian crew of 'Emerald Star' in a Xiamen hospital. 11 crew members are in Xiamen pic.twitter.com/tKXWwKzfng
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) October 16, 2017
The Japan Coast Guard said it had dispatched patrol boats and aircraft to rescue the missing crew, but the operations were hampered by a raging typhoon.
List of 15 rescued Indians as received from Japanese officials. Search on for missing 11. Our Missions regularly monitoring the situation. pic.twitter.com/0CKalemnie
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) October 13, 2017
According to Kumar's statement, 11 crew members were rescued by the ship Densa Cobra, registered in Xiamen, China, and five more by Samarinda, registered in the Philippines.
