Chinese warship collides with Taiwan freight vessel then sails away, says island’s coastguard
- Unidentified military vessels tried to persuade container to sail to mainland port after collision near Taiwanese-controlled island
- Coastguard says warship refused to stop when patrol boats arrived at the scene, saying its hull was badly damaged
An unidentified Chinese military vessel collided with a Taiwanese container ship on Wednesday night and refused to stop after the accident, the island’s coastguard has said.
No injuries were reported, but the coastguard said it had received a call from the freighter, called Yutai Number One, after the incident.
The collision happened about 20 nautical miles southeast of Liao Luo, a port on Quemoy, one of the closest Taiwanese-controlled islands to the mainland.
After the crash, the Chinese warship asked the freight vessel to sail with it to the mainland port of Xiamen in Fujian province, some 40km (25 miles) away.
“The other party requested [Yutai Number One] to go to Xiamen for investigation,” coastguard official Chen Jian-wen told local media. “So it asked us to send patrol ships to the rescue.”
