Chinese fishing vessel sinks in Indian Ocean, 39 missing

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese fishing vessel has capsized in the Indian Ocean and President Xi Jinping has called for every effort to be made to find survivors, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday.

The fishing vessel, “Lupeng Yuanyu 028”, capsized in the early hours of Tuesday, with all 39 crew members missing, CCTV said.

CCTV said Xi Jinping said every effort should be made to find survivors and security risk alerts would be raised for deep-sea operations.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has asked its missions in Australia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries to coordinate search and rescue operations.

(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Bernard Orr; French edition by Camille Renaud)