Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of two more of the crew members of an Iranian oil tanker that collided last week in the East China Sea with a Chinese cargo ship.
Chinese state media say the bodies were recovered Saturday morning on the deck of the adrift, still-burning Sanchi. A body found earlier this week is believed to be another of the 32 crew members, which included 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis.
The salvage team tried to reach the crew’s living quarters Saturday, but were turned back by high temperatures.
The team, however, was able to retrieve the ship’s data recorder.
The Panama-registered tanker Sanchi was sailing from Iran to South Korea carrying 136,000 metric tons of condensate, an ultra-light type of crude oil, when it slammed last Saturday into the Hong Kong-registered CF Crystal about 257 kilometers off the coast of Shanghai.
The Crystal’s 21 crew members, all Chinese nationals, were rescued after the collision. The ship was carrying grain from the United States to China.
It is not clear what caused the collision.
