Coast Guard personnel were searching for two crewmembers Saturday after a fishing boat carrying them caught fire off the southern island of Jeju and sank, leaving them missing.
A fire was reported on the 29-ton vessel about 90 kilometers southwest of Jeju's Chagwi Island at 9:58 a.m., with 10 crewmembers aboard, according to the Coast Guard.
Eight of them were rescued by fishermen aboard nearby ships -- two South Koreans and six Indonesians -- but the two others -- both South Koreans -- remained unaccounted for.
In the afternoon, authorities succeeded in containing the fire, but the ship sank and was fully submerged as of 5:44 p.m. Rescuers were unable to enter the ship's interior, as the fiber-reinforced plastic vessel made it difficult to contain the fire quickly.
Coast Guard personnel continued their search for the two missing crewmembers into the night, mobilizing eight vessels. (Yonhap)
