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Piles of rubbish washed up on Hong Kong beach by the typhoon
Photo: Keith Tsuji / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
As the Hong Kong newspaper "South China Morning Post" reported, after the accident on Saturday, the air rescue service was initially able to bring three crew members from the sinking ship to safety around 300 kilometers west of the Chinese special administrative region.
The status of the other 27 seafarers initially remained unclear.
According to the report, the Chinese-flagged industrial ship "Fujing001" was in distress and broken up off the southern Chinese coast on Saturday morning while the typhoon was raging in the region.
Video footage showed a crew member being pulled into a helicopter with a lifeline as the ship sank into the sea below.
Waves up to ten meters high and visibility of less than 500 meters made it difficult to find the other seamen.
The rescue work should continue throughout the night.
dpa/nile
