Hanoi:
A Vietnamese maritime official says authorities are searching for eight sailors who went missing after their cargo ship collided with another vessel off the country's southern coast.
Nguyen Xuan Binh, deputy director of the maritime search and rescue center in Khanh Hoa province, said on Monday that the sailors went missing after their ship, which was transporting steel, sank after it and another vessel collided 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the coast early Sunday. Three sailors were rescued by the cargo vessel, he added.
Coast guard ships and fishing boats were mobilized for the search, which has been hampered by high waves, Binh said.