South Korea: Two fishing boats run aground off Jeju, leaving two dead

Jeju(The Uttam Hindu): Two people in South Korea were dead and two others went missing Saturday after two fishing boats carrying 15 crew members ran aground in waters off the southern resort island of Jeju, according to the coast guard. The coast guard said it received reports that a 32-tonne fishing boat carrying seven people and a 29-tonne vessel with eight crew members were stranded on a rock in waters off Jeju Island at 9:24 am. As of 3 pm, 13 crew members had been rescued, but two of them were dead. Search operations are under way to rescue two other missing people. Of the rescued people, the captain of the 32-tonne boat in his 50s was found in cardiac arrest and was transported to a hospital. But he was later pronounced dead.

An Indonesian crew member was discovered some four hours after the accident during search operations along the coast. But the person was also found in a state of cardiac arrest and later died. Of the rescued people, one member was moved to a hospital after passing out, but there seem to be no serious health problems. The 10 others were reportedly suffering from hypothermia, but the cases are believed to be minor. The coast guard said one of its members sustained an injury on his hand after being swept by waves and hitting a rock during rescue operations. The captains of the two boats are both South Korean nationals, and the crew members are foreigners, including those from Vietnam and Indonesia. Authorities are continuing search operations for the two other missing crew members. But bad weather and tall waves are undermining rescue efforts. The rescue and search operations involved nine Navy patrol ships, a Navy warship and six civilian ships, with around 100 personnel deployed to coastal areas to search for the missing members, Yonhap news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered officials to mobilise all available resources to rescue the crew and also called for guaranteeing the safety of rescue workers, citing bad weather at sea.