The Japanese coastguard said Friday it had discovered a dozen bodies inside a Chinese fishing boat that capsized after a collision with a Hong Kong oil tanker off Japan's western coast the previous day.
"Our divers found all the bodies of the missing 12 crew members inside the ship," a coastguard official told AFP.
Thursday's collision occurred 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
The Chinese vessel, the 290-ton "Lurong Yuanyu 378", had 16 crew members in total.
While Japanese authorities said four had been rescued, the Chinese consulate in Osaka said only three of the 16 crew members had survived, according to China's CCTV state broadcaster. It did not explain why the toll was different.
The Hong Kong-flagged ship was identified as "Brightoil Lucky", a 63,294-ton tanker carrying 21 crew members.
The tanker's crew were believed to be safe.
Japan had deployed three patrol boats to search for the missing crew, after responding to a plea for help from their Chinese counterparts.
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