By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIJING (Worthy News) – Rescue teams salvaged a ferry that was hit by an oil spill cleaning vessel on a river in southern China, killing 11 people, but at least five people remained missing Saturday, officials said.
News emerged overnight that 19 people fell overboard during the crash on the Yuanshui River in Hunan province on Tuesday morning, but only three were rescued the same day.
The accident occurred where the river is, on average, more than 60 meters (200 feet) deep and 500 meters (1,600 feet) wide.
State media said rescue teams salvaged the ferry on Friday night and continued the search.
One rescued person reportedly escaped the ferry by breaking a window with his foot. Video footage showed the much larger oil spill-cleaning vessel hitting the ferry from behind in calm water.
The crash shocked the local community, and the ferry was described as the primary way for people to come and go from their village.
POLICE INVESTIGATION
Authorities said three people on the larger boat, none of whom were injured, were placed under investigation by police after their boat reached shore safely.
More details about the criminal investigation were not immediately available.
As economies grow, several nations, including China, have been struggling with safety issues and regulating increasingly crowded waterways. “There is still a big gap in the rescue capability between China and developed countries,” noted the Institute of Physics (IOP), a scientific charity.
China isn’t alone: In Hungary, for instance, on the evening of May 29, 2019, the cruise liner Viking Sigyn collided with a smaller tourist boat called Hableany, Hungarian for Mermaid, near a bridge in Budapest, the capital.
The Mermaid sank in less than a minute, killing 27 of the 35 people on board, most of them South Koreans. One South Korean tourist is still missing following the accident in the Danube River, one of Europe’s main waterways.
(With additional reporting by the Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest.)
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked the Trump administration from carrying out mass layoffs and sweeping structural changes across the federal government, allowing the president’s ambitious reorganization plan to move forward while litigation continues.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a sweeping escalation in his global tariff policy, issuing formal letters to eight more countries warning that steep import duties will take effect on August 1 unless new trade agreements are reached. The move marks the latest salvo in Trump’s aggressive “America First” trade agenda, which he says is designed to correct decades of unfair trade practices and ballooning U.S. deficits.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas are inching toward a potential 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, but a core dispute remains unresolved: the deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza throughout the truce period. While both sides agree that significant progress has been made, talks in Doha are intensifying over troop presence, humanitarian aid delivery, and the long-term status of the war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Wednesday that it has conducted a series of targeted ground operations in southern Lebanon aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s military presence and preventing the Iran-backed terror group from re-establishing infrastructure near the border. The raids, described as “special, targeted operations,” were carried out over the past several days in response to repeated ceasefire violations by Hezbollah.
Despite a previously signed agreement by Christian leaders to avoid legal action, the governor of West Java has called for full prosecution of a violent June 27 mob attack on a Christian youth retreat, describing it as a “serious criminal matter” that must not go unpunished.
In a sweeping move to safeguard America’s agricultural integrity and national security, the Trump administration has unveiled a comprehensive action plan to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland and root out foreign influence in the agricultural sector.
Ten people have been arrested so far in a “planned ambush” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in north Texas.