Chinese rescuers on Tuesday found
14 fishermen alive and recovered the bodies of two who had died from
boats that sank during a typhoon, authorities said.
Fifty-eight fishermen
remain missing from the three boats that went down in the South China
Sea roughly 300 kilometers from the Chinese island of Hainan, the local
government said Tuesday.
Twenty-two ships and four
planes are combing the area for the missing men, the state-run news
agency Xinhua reported, citing Hainan maritime authorities.
Rescue operations have
been hampered by strong gales and rough seas.
Two of the vessels
foundered Sunday afternoon as they battled gales, and the third one sank
Monday morning.
A total of five fishing
boats with 171 crew aboard were caught in the storm, the Hainan Maritime
Search and Rescue Center said, according to Xinhua. The two other
vessels managed to survive the harsh conditions.
All three boats that sank
were from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Fourteen of the
fishermen were rescued on Monday.
President Xi Jinping on
Monday urged local authorities to do their utmost to find the missing or
stranded and minimize casualties, state media reported. Xi also ordered
the armed forces and central government departments to help in the
rescue effort.
The storm affecting the
region, Typhoon Wutip, made landfall in central Vietnam late Monday,
weakening as it moved inland.
Three people have been
killed as a result of the storm, the state-run Vietnam News Agency
reported Tuesday, citing the regional center for flood and storm
prevention.
Vietnamese authorities
had relocated tens of thousands of people from areas at risk as the
storm approached.
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