Two men missing after freighters collide in western Japan sea

2 missing after freighters collide in western Japan sea

TOKUSHIMA (Kyodo) -- Two men went missing after two cargo ships collided off the coast of Tokushima Prefecture, western Japan, in the small hours of Sunday, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The Marshall Islands-registered Outsailing 9 and the Nisshin Maru, owned by Hiroshima-based shipping company Asia Ship Trader Co., collided around 12:15 a.m. when they were traveling in the Naruto Strait between Naruto city and the Awaji Island.
Local coast guard officials in Tokushima said two of the four, all Japanese, aboard the 199-ton Nisshin Maru -- Nobuya Chihara, 36, and Koji Horigane, 59 -- went missing, while the others were rescued by the Outsailing 9 and were taken to hospital in Tokushima. Their conditions are not life-threatening.
All the crew members, 15 Chinese, aboard the 2,926-ton Outsailing 9 were unhurt.
The incident was first reported to the Kobe coast guard office by the Nisshin Maru crew, who said it had collided with a foreign freighter near the Onaruto Bridge connecting Awaji and Naruto city.
Both of the Nisshin Maru crew members who survived the collision said all four men rushed out of the ship soon after the crash, according to the officials.
The four are employees of a shipping company in Ehime Prefecture and on contract to operate the freighter, which was on its way to Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, at the time of the collision.
The Outsailing 9 was en route to Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, from Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture.
(Mainichi Japan) March 28, 2010

TBS Newsi: http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye4390180.html
NTV News24: http://www.news24.jp/articles/2010/03/28/07156195.html#

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Naruto Strait
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naruto Strait (鳴門海峡, Naruto Kaikyō) is a strait between Awaji Island and Shikoku in Japan. It connects Harima nada, the eastern part of the Inland Sea and Kii Channel. A famous feature of the strait is the Naruto whirlpools, Ōnaruto Bridge, the southern part of Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge crosses over it. (see photos below)