South Korean cargo ship goes missing near Uruguay: Ministry
A cargo ship being used by a South Korean shipping company has gone missing in seas off Uruguay with 24 crew members, Seoul says.
The Stella Daisy with eight South Korean and 16 Filipino crew members on board went out of contact late Friday, South Korea time, the South Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.
It added that the ship disappeared after one of the crew members sent a text message to the company saying the ship was taking on water.
“It remains unknown whether the crew escaped to safety," a ministry official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
Missing ship believed to have sunk: Uruguay
The Uruguayan navy, meanwhile, said that the missing Korean freighter is believed to have sunk in the Atlantic Ocean.
The navy organized a search operation by four merchant ships in the area because the Stella Daisy was far off the Uruguayan coast, some 3,700 kilometers from the capital of Montevideo, spokesman Gaston Jaunsolo said.
According to a navy statement, after the first ship reached the scene, it detected a "strong smell of fuel" and spotted debris, "an indication that the damaged ship had sunk."
The intended destination of the ship, which is flagged in the Marshall Islands, was not immediately clear.
Yonhap also quoted government officials in Seoul as saying that the merchant ships spotted a life raft in the area and were working to rescue two sailors whose nationality was not known.
The Stella Daisy had reportedly departed from a port in Brazil on March 26.
The ship is a large ore carrier (VLOC) that can carry more than 260,000 tonnes.
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