One sailor remained missing after the Vietnamese cargo vessel Hoang Phuc 18, which was carrying 17 people and hundreds of tonnes of cargo, sank on the Soai Rap river off the coast of HCM City on Friday evening.

Rescue men are searching for missing members of the Hoang Phuc 18 cargo vessel which sank on the Soai Rap River in HCM City on Friday evening.

On yesterday morning, the bodies of three people believed to be Hoang Phuc 18 sailors were found.

Two bodies were taken to the rescue ship SAR 413 which was heading to Can Gio to receive the third body.

Rescue teams were expanding the scope of rescue work to an area with a radius of 6 nautical miles (over 11km) from the site of the sinking.

According to Tran Minh Sang, a Hoang Phuc 18 sailor who was rescued from the accident, the cargo ship departed from CuongHung port in Dong Nai's Long Thanh district on Wednesday. When reaching the Soai Rap estuary, rough seas forced the ship to turn back to marking buoy No 5, waiting there for better weather.

Sang said at about 7.30 pm on Friday, when sailors were about to have dinner, a wave hit one side of the vessel, making it stagger before capsizing.

"I was lucky to cling to the ship's screw propeller and waited for rescue teams," Sang was quoted by VOV as saying.

As of 10:00 am yesterday, rescuers had drilled a third large hole on the capsized vessel's hull while also scouring the river bed for the two missing members, according to Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper. One was found.

The National Committee for Search and Rescue was co-operating with the Transport Ministry to search for the missing sailor. 

VNS