One suspected refugee has been confirmed dead and two others are missing after their boat capsized near Hong Kong during a thunderstorm yesterday morning.
At 5:05am yesterday, the Guangdong Provincial Maritime Search and Rescue Centre received a report of a person overboard in the waters near Nei Ling Ding, a mainland Chinese island in the Pearl River Estuary.
Shenzhen’s maritime rescue centre sent a coast guard ship to rescue the person, who informed them that they had been onboard a boat carrying 12 other people which had capsized, Headline Daily reports.
The Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Zhuhai Maritime Bureaus deployed six vessels in a joint operation to search for the missing people, believed to be refugees travelling towards Hong Kong.
By 2pm, 10 people reportedly from South Asian countries had been rescued and were in stable condition, while one corpse was found. Two people remain missing.
According to Oriental Daily, authorities have had difficulty communicating with the group due to language barriers, and have not been able to confirm their nationalities nor their destination.
Mainland authorities continue to search the waters for the missing pair.
The Hong Kong Marine Department told Oriental Daily that it was aware of the situation, and had notified ships passing through the area to be cautious and report any findings to them.
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