A bulk carrier crashed into a cargo vessel in the early hours of October 22, 2016, sinking it along with its cargo of 2,700 tonnes of sand, Fleetmon reported.
The carrier, named Xinzhou 18, of which its flag is unknown but suspected to be Chinese, has a gross tonnage of approximately 30’000, and was ballasting from Zhenjiang to Caofeidan when the incident took place.
The cargo vessel was Chinese-flagged; three of the crew members were rescued and a salvage went underway, no further reports of injury or fatalities yet, an investigation is taking place to find out the guilty party.
The crash occurred near Zhenjiang Port, on the Yangtze River, north of Shanghai on the east coast of China; the port primarily handles general and bulk cargo, and handles an estimated 150 million tonnes of cargo a year.
In late September, 2016, a similar incident took place when the Turkish-flagged cargo vessel Murat Hacıbekiroğlu 2 sank in the Mediterranean and the crew were rescued by a passing container ship.