(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-12 06:43

HANGZHOU -- Twenty Indonesian sailors were rescued by a Chinese fishing vessel after their ship fully loaded with wood sank off east China, Chinese rescuers said Sunday.

The Panama-registered ship with 20 crewmen sank around 7 a.m. Sunday off the coast of east China's Zhejiang province, according to Zhejiang provincial maritime rescue center.

The center immediately organized rescue ships and helicopters to the sinking site as instructed by the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center who received an emergency report from the vessel.

All the 20 sailors were rescued by a Zhejiang fishing vessel Sunday morning and were sent to Xiangshan in Ningbo Sunday evening.

The ship was en route from Papua New Guinea to Taizhou, east China's Jiangsu province.

Also on Sunday, eleven Chinese fishermen were missing after their boat sank in the East China Sea, said authorities in Zhejiang Province.

It is unclear whether or not the two accidents are related.

The fishing boat, carrying 12 people, sank at 10:23 a.m. after hitting a cargo ship at 30 degrees north and 122 degrees east, an area near the Panama-registered ship's sinking site.

Only the captain of the Chinese boat was saved, said sources with the Zhejiang maritime and fishery bureau.

Search for the missing is going on.