By Xinhua,
Tokyo : Four people were killed and 13 others were missing as a Japanese a fishing boat capsized in Pacific waters about 330 km off central Japan’s Chiba Prefecture on Monday, according to Coast Guard.
Among the 20 crew members onboard, seven have been rescued while the Japan Coast Guard was still searching for the 13 missing.
The accident was unlikely to have been caused by a collision, the Coast Guard said, adding that the boat had reportedly anchored in the Pacific despite rough weather.
“There were relatively strong winds at the time of the capsizing,” another Coast Guard spokesman said.
The area of the accident was experiencing waves of two meters at the time of the accident. The weather was cloudy, with visibility of only 10 km, according to the Coast Guard.
The fishing boat, a 135-ton Suwa Maru No. 58, was from central Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture’s port city of Iwaki.