By DPA
Seoul : South Korea’s coast guard Wednesday continued for the second day their search for the 14 crew missing since their ship carrying chemicals sank off the south coast of the country, Yonhap press agency reported.
The Eastern Bright freighter, carrying 2,000 tonnes of nitric acid, ran into rough weather and sent an SOS signal at 4:20 a.m. Tuesday before disappearing in sea off Yeosu port, 450 km south of Seoul.
One sailor from Myanmar was rescued but 12 Koreans and two Myanmarese are still missing from the ship that left Yeosu late Monday night and was on its way to Taiwan.
Rescue efforts by 25 vessels, one helicopter and one airplane were being hampered by bad weather, the likely cause of the sinking, police told Yonhap.
South Korea experienced its worst-ever oil spill earlier this month when a tanker leaked 10,500 tonnes of oil onto the waters off the west coast after colliding with a barge.