Officials in the Philippines are investigating the death of three Filipino fishermen killed after their boat collided with a “foreign” vessel in the South China Sea, according to a report by CNN on Wednesday, which said their boat was struck at about 4.20am 150km north of Scarborough Shoal, a reef claimed by both China and the Philippines 200km west of Luzon, but 11 survivors and men in other boats nearby managed to carry their dead colleagues, including the captain, to northern Luzon Island.
The area is a hotly contested maritime flashpoint – claimed by both Beijing and Manila, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the coast guard were “checking all monitored vessels in the area” as part of its investigation, the report said, adding that a tanker that came from South Korea and was heading to Singapore may have been in the area at the time of the incident, according to marine traffic data and survivors’ accounts.
It said maritime accidents were common because crews are often mistreated and undertrained, and an information centre in Singapore had more than 1,880 people listed as dead or missing at sea in the first half of 2023.
Read the full report: CNN.
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