Two missing after freighter collides with passenger roller from Haikou

A local Hainan steel plate transporter Xinying F069 submerged after colliding with passenger roller Haikou 9 at 00:46 am on Feb 22 at the waters of the New Hai'an Port waterway in Xuwen, Guangdong province, with five people from F069 falling into the water.

Staff members from Haikou 9, which carried more than 970 mainland holiday goers from Hainan, immediately conducted rescue work, saving three people but the other two are still missing. Rescue work is still going on, while the sunken cargo ship has been fished out and the waterway is now open, according to authorities from the two sides.

Haikou 9 docked at Xuwen at 6 am, with all the 970 passengers and 140 vehicles in safe condition. Investigation is underway to find the cause of the collision, said officials with the Haikou city government.

Qiongzhou Strait that links Guangdong province with Hainan province has been hit by heavy fog for seven days, the longest since 1951, according to Hainan provincial meteorological department .

During the seven days from Feb 15 to 21, ferries carried 86,109 vehicles leaving the island, but stranded cars continued to crowd roads near three ports in Haikou as heavy fog continued to affect normal ferry services, said a statement from the city government on Thursday.

Official data showed that by 11:30 am Thursday, a total of 9,825 vehicles were ferried. And by 13:00 pm, there were still 11,281 vehicles lining up for transportation.

To help ease the traffic jam, the Haikou city government has decided to let its civil servants in departments other than the emergency service departments to shift their holiday for Feb 25, which means they will work for a long week of seven working days after the Spring Festival. The government has also asked its civil servants to join local volunteers in providing essential services to stranded passengers.

Hainan, a popular destination for Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, received 5.67 million tourists and more than 92,000 cars in the past seven days, according to the provincial tourism development commission.