Fishing boat collision off Gyeongju leaves 7 dead, 1 missing

[Anchor]

Early this morning (12.9), a fishing boat capsized after colliding with a sand transport vessel off the coast of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

Among the 8 crew members on board the fishing boat, 7 have died, and the search operation by the Coast Guard is ongoing to find the one missing person.

Reporter Choi Bo-kyu has the details.

[Report]

The sea is pitch dark.

As the Coast Guard shines their searchlight, the overturned fishing boat is spotted among the rolling waves.

Around 5:40 AM today, a 20-ton fishing boat carrying 8 people collided with a 400-ton sand transport vessel about 6 km southeast of Gampo Port in Gyeongju.

After the accident, the sand transport vessel reported the distress to the Coast Guard.

The rescue team arrived at the scene 13 minutes after the report, but the boat had already capsized.

The military and Coast Guard deployed 7 aircraft and over 10 vessels to search the area around the accident site.

During more than 10 underwater searches, 7 crew members were found in the overturned fishing boat, but all were deceased.

The deceased have been identified as 3 South Koreans, including the captain, and 4 Indonesians.

The overturned fishing boat had set sail from Gampo Port around 4 PM yesterday (12.8) and was returning to port after finishing its fishing operations.

[Park Jeong-rok/Head of the Coast Guard Rescue Division in Pohang: "The sea conditions were not particularly bad. It was a vulnerable time for accidents, so it is presumed that there was a mutual collision due to negligence in lookout."]

The Coast Guard has expanded the search area at sea to find the remaining missing Indonesian crew member.

They also plan to tow the overturned fishing boat to the port to continue the search of the hull.

The Coast Guard is investigating the exact circumstances of the accident with the crew members of the sand transport vessel, who did not suffer significant damage.

This is KBS News, Choi Bo-kyu.