By RIA Novosti,
Kiev : Chinese rescue workers have pulled ten bodies from a Ukrainian tugboat that sank near Hong Kong on March 22, Ukraine’s emergency service said on Monday.
The Ukrainian tug, Naftogaz-67, sank after colliding with a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea. Out of the 25 sailors on board, most of them Ukrainians, only seven were rescued.
The ship was brought to the surface on Sunday. Earlier attempts to pull the Naftogaz-67 tugboat to shallow waters had failed due to adverse weather conditions.
Rescue workers had earlier recovered three bodies from the ship, and a spokesman for Ukraine’s Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday that, “The search for the other dead sailors will continue after water has been pumped out [from the tugboat] and the hole in the bow of Naftogaz-67 has been sealed.”
The Ukrainian vessel was last checked by inspectors in south China in October 2007, when six safety violations, including navigational, were detected. Oil leaks and power and support system failures were also noted.
The owner of the tugboat, Anatoliy Prisyazhnyuk, blamed the Chinese dry cargo ship for the fatal collision. The Chinese vessel suffered minor bow damage and remained afloat after the accident.