More than a dozen Filipino crew members rescued from the South China Sea have been transferred from the Chinese coastguard to Philippine vessels close to where their ship went down.
The China Coast Guard said the transfer of the 15 survivors and the remains of two deceased from the capsized cargo ship took place on Sunday afternoon at the request of Philippine search and rescue authorities. Four other crew members from the ship remain missing.
The Chinese coastguard rescued the men on Friday after their Singapore-registered cargo ship Devon Bay went down near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed group of tiny, low-lying rocky islets claimed both by Beijing and Manila.
The Devon Bay was carrying iron ore and was destined for Yangjiang Port in southern China’s Guangdong province when it went down.
According to the Chinese coastguard, the vessel capsized about 55 nautical miles northwest of Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.
The shoal is a major flashpoint between the two countries. China last year approved the creation of a nature reserve at the islets, months after it published a set of geographic coordinates for the shoal, seeking to reinforce its claim of sovereignty.
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