Tasnim – The body of one of the sailors who went missing in the East China Sea following a collision between an Iranian tanker and a Chinese bulk ship has been found dead in the Pacific Ocean, an Iranian official said.


Searchers have found the body of one of the missing sailors in the East China Sea, CEO of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran Mohammad Rastad said on Monday.

A post-mortem will be conducted in Shanghai to determine the identity of the deceased individual, he added.

An international search and rescue operation has been launched in the hope of finding 32 sailors who went missing in the East China Sea after National Iranian Tanker's Sanchi and the Chinese freight collided there.

Sanchi spewed its £44million cargo into the East China Sea after it collided with the CF Crystal about 160 nautical miles off the coast of Shanghai on Saturday.

Thick plumes of thick dark smoke could still be seen billowing into the sky above the towering inferno.
Iran's Consul General in Shanghai Alireza Irvash stressed that the tanker was still afloat and burning, adding, “The rescue is going on”.
The tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light crude oil, which is the equivalent to just fewer than one million barrels.

The CF Crystal had been damaged but “without jeopardizing the safety of the ship” and all of its 21 Chinese crew had been rescued, according to China’s transport ministry.

The freighter was carrying 64,000 tons of grain from the United States to China’s southern province of Guangdong when it crashed, the ministry said.