Eight foreigners among 22 people missing as tugboat capsizes in China
Rescuers search for 4 Singaporeans, a Japanese, an Indian and an Indonesian and 16 Chinese
Twenty-two people, including eight foreigners, remained missing late last night after a tugboat capsized during a trial voyage on the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province.
The new vessel was undergoing testing with the owner and technicians aboard, Xinhua said. The missing foreigners were four Singaporeans, one Indonesian, one Malaysian, one Indian and a Japanese citizen.
The Jiangsu Marine Affairs Bureau said the 368-tonne tugboat capsized at around 3pm while testing its turning abilities near the city of Jingjiang .
Three people were rescued, including Wang Zhenkai, an interpreter for the missing Japanese, Masashi Kanasaki, 65.
Wang was saved at about 5.30am after rescuers cut through the bottom of the boat. He was taken to hospital and is in stable condition.
"The vessel suddenly turned on its side. Water immediately flooded in," Wang told Xinhua. He survived by clinging to a hydraulic pump. Wang said he grabbed Kanasaki, but could not hold on as the boat started to sink.
Kanasaki, an engineer at a company in Japan's Fukuoka prefecture, arrived in China early this month to assist in the launch of the tugboat.
Rescuers used a crane to lift the boat from the water amid fears some of the crew were trapped in the overturned cabin. By late afternoon the boat had been towed to within a couple of hundred metres of the shore.
Rescuers said that their search was being hampered by strong currents and freezing water temperatures.
About 30 vessels, including patrol boats and tugboats, have joined the search for the missing people.
The 30-metre boat was manufactured by Anhui Bengbu Shenzhou Machinery and was chartered by a subsidiary of Singapore's Sembcorp Marine. Xinhua said that Bengbu Shenzhou had not reported the vessel's route or testing plans to port authorities.
A spokesman for Singapore's foreign ministry said its consular officials in Shanghai were at the site providing assistance to the next of kin.
The ministry said it was working closely with the Chinese authorities on the search and rescue operations.
The Japanese consulate-general in Shanghai also said it had sent an official to the scene.
