48 survivors, 14 missing after Vietnam ship sinks near South China sea

The number of survivors of a cargo ship that sank Saturday off a Chinese-occupied shoal in the South China Sea rose to 48 by Tuesday as search and rescue crews hunted for more people who went down with the vessel.

A multinational search for 14 people who remain missing was still underway Tuesday afternoon involving Vietnamese, Philippine and Chinese rescuers.

Vietnamese authorities announced that three more of the 62 people onboard had been saved but did not provide details of the rescue.

The Vietnamese cargo vessel Khoi Nguyen 18 sank near Fiery Cross Reef, a Chinese-built island and military outpost in the hotly contested Spratly Islands.

The vessel went down while operating in bad weather in the East Sea, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said, adding that all 48 rescued people had been transferred to Vietnamese authorities, who were providing medical care before taking them back to the mainland.

Khoi Nguyen is a general cargo ship built in 2017, according to vessel tracking platforms. It was last detected in March near Vietnam on its automated identification system, or AIS, according to ship tracking platform Marine Traffic.