Search on for 5 crew members after South Korean tanker capsizes off Japan

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – At least five crew members went missing after a South Korean-flagged tanker capsized off Japan on Wednesday.

The chemical tanker Keoyoungsun had made a distress call to the Japanese Coast Guard in the country’s western Yamaguchi province early today, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Heavy winds had forced the tanker to anchor and was seen tilting in the waters while 11 crew members, including two South Koreans, eight Indonesians and a Chinese, were aboard.

Six of the crew members were rescued while a search for the other five is going on as the coast guard put to use aircraft and a patrol vessel.

The search is going on in waters west of Mutsurejima, an island that is part of Shimonoseki city on Japan’s main Honshu island.