TOKYO (AFP) — Three vessels collided Wednesday in a strait in western Japan killing one Filipino crew member and leaving three others missing when their cargo ship sank, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The vessels -- an oil tanker, a cargo ship and another boat -- collided in the Akashi Strait in Japan's Inland Sea, a coast guard official said.
The 1,466-tonne Belizean cargo ship sank with nine Filipino crew on board.
"Six of them have been rescued but three others are still missing," the official said.
One of the six rescued Filipinos later died at a local hospital, the coast guard said.
The coast guard dispatched 16 patrol boats to search for the missing. They said oil, believed to be fuel, was also leaking from the sunken cargo ship, which was carrying steel products.
The oil spread into an area about 3.5 kilometres (two miles) long and 100 metres wide, according to the coast guard.
No casualties or major damage was immediately reported on the oil tanker, which was shipping ethylene, and the third smaller boat, the local coast guard said.
Collisions are common in the Akashi Strait, one of Japan's busiest bodies of water that links major cities in western Japan with the Pacific Ocean.
In a separate accident at sea, a Japanese fishing boat sunk after catching fire in Pacific waters 550 kilometres south of Tokyo, the coast guard said.
Six men escaped on a lifeboat and were rescued after drifting about 13 kilometres.
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