Rescuers search for 23 missing after Vietnamese ship sinks in South China Sea

HONG KONG- Rescuers were searching on Sunday for 23 people missing after a Vietnamese ship sank in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, while 39 were pulled from the waters, China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

Authorities in the southern province of Hainan said the cargo vessel Khoi Nguyen 18, with 62 Vietnamese nationals aboard, ran into distress in waters near Fiery Cross Reef, CCTV added.

A distress flare from the vessel was first spotted by a Chinese rescue ship, the Nanhai Jiu 115, on Saturday evening, CCTV said.

Six Chinese vessels, a rescue helicopter, and a Vietnamese vessel joined the search and rescue effort at the site, it said.

The Vietnamese-registered vessel is nearly 70 m (230 ft) long with a gross tonnage of 999 tons.

The area around the reef is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha Islands, a group of highly contested reefs, islets, and atolls in the resource-rich South China Sea.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire strategic waterway, including the Spratlys, where it has built runways and militarised artificial islands.

But Beijing's sweeping claims overlap with those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong and Dylan Duan in Shanghai; Editing by Clarence Fernandez/Reuters