Five killed as explosion tears ship apart off Korean coast (VIDEO)

15 Jan, 2012 08:13 / Updated 12 years ago

A 4191-tonne freight vessel carrying oil exploded on Sunday morning in the Yellow Sea off South Korea’s port city of Incheon. Five crew members of the total of 11 Koreans and five Burmese have been killed, while six others are missing.

According to South Korean Coast Guard, the incident happened three miles north of Jawol Island around 8 am. Five people were rescued from the vessel. The Coast Guard has dispatched patrol and rescue boats to search for those missing.The immediate cause of the explosion is not yet known.The vessel exploded after leaving the port of Incheon en route to another port, Daesan, in South Korea’s South Chungcheong Province.