Hanoi, VIETNAM – Rescuers were searching for 17 missing people on Sunday after a Vietnamese cargo ship carrying 62 people sank during stormy weather in the contested South China Sea.

Vietnamese authorities arrived at the scene after the vessel Khoi Nguyen 18 sank while operating in bad weather conditions, foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement.

Vietnamese rescuers, supported by Chinese rescue forces including ships and helicopters and other vessels in the area, rescued 45 of the 62 people as of 12 noon (05:00 GMT) on Sunday.

Authorities and fishing vessels were actively searching for the remaining people, Hang said.

The Khoi Nguyen 18 encountered trouble near Yongshu Reef, also known as Fiery Cross Reef, in the Spratly archipelago, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

A Chinese rescue vessel first spotted what was believed to be a distress signal from the endangered Vietnamese ship on Saturday evening, China’s state news agency Xinhua said.

Six Chinese vessels and a rescue helicopter as well as one Vietnamese vessel were conducting search and rescue operations in the area, according to Xinhua.

The Khoi Nguyen 18 is a Vietnamese-registered cargo ship measuring just under 70 metres in length, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring website.

Second vessel sinks

In a separate incident on Friday, another Vietnamese vessel sank amid rough seas in the area of the Spratly Islands, with 33 fishermen rescued and three missing, Vietnamese state media said on Saturday.

The fishing vessel encountered strong winds, took on water and sank on Friday morning, with other fishing vessels in the area mobilised to aid the rescue, according to the state-run Tuoi Tre News site.

By around 21:00 on Friday, 33 fishermen had been rescued about 15 nautical miles west of the location of the sinking.

They were brought to Da Tay, or West Reef, an atoll under Vietnamese control that is part of the Spratlys, for medical care and were in stable condition.

The three missing fishermen were clinging to plastic containers and not wearing life jackets when they left the ship, the report said.

The South China Sea is a strategic waterway, with more than 25 per cent of all global trade passing through it in 2024, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China claims the South China Sea in nearly its entirety, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have competing claims to areas of the strategic waterway, including the Spratly Island chain.

Fiery Cross Reef is controlled by Beijing but also claimed by Hanoi and Manila.