More than two dozen missing in shipwreck off Hong Kong during South China Sea typhoon

HONG KONG: More than two dozen crew members are unaccounted for after their ship broke into two during a typhoon in the South China Sea on Saturday (Jul 2), with rescuers scrambling to find them, officials say.

An engineering vessel that was 160 nautical miles southwest of Hong Kong "suffered substantial damage and broke into two pieces" and the 30-member crew abandoned ship, according to the Hong Kong Government Flying Service.

Three people had been rescued as of 3pm local time (0700 GMT) and were taken to hospital for treatment, authorities said.

Dramatic footage provided by Hong Kong authorities showed a person being airlifted onto a helicopter while waves crashed over the deck of the semi-submerged ship below.

The three survivors said other crew members may have been swept away by waves before the first helicopter arrived, according to a government statement.

Typhoon Chaba earlier formed in the central part of the South China Sea and on Saturday afternoon made landfall in Guangdong province in southern China. It is China's first typhoon of the year.

Rescuers in Hong Kong were notified of the incident at 7.25am local time and found the ship near Chaba's centre, where harsh weather conditions and nearby wind farms made the operation "more difficult and dangerous".

The ship's location recorded wind speeds of 144kph and waves that were 10m high, authorities said.

The Government Flying Service dispatched two sorties of fixed-wing aircraft and four helicopter sorties, with mainland Chinese authorities also dispatching a rescue boat.

Rescuers said they would increase the search area "due to the large number of people missing" and extend the operation into the night if conditions allowed.

HIGH-RISK AREAS IN CHINA

Typhoon Chaba, the Thai name for the hibiscus flower, brought gales and rain to its southern shores of China on Saturday, as forecasters warned of record rainfall and high disaster risk in provinces including Guangdong, the country's most populous.

It was moving northwest at 15 to 20 kmh after the eye of the storm made landfall in Guangdong's Maoming city on Saturday afternoon, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement.

Chaba, though medium in intensity and expected to lose strength over time, is likely to bring extremely heavy rains and may break the record for cumulative rainfall as it pulls the monsoon rain belt in the region inland, said Gao Shuanzhu, the centre's chief forecaster.

"The abundant monsoon water vapour will lead to intense downpours and huge cumulative rainfall of an extreme nature," Gao said, predicting up to 24 inches of cumulative rainfall in some areas.

At risk are the west of Guangdong, where China's typhoons usually linger, the east of Guangxi autonomous region and the island province of Hainan, with rainstorms causing landslides, urban waterlogging and floods, Gao said.

Hainan upgraded its emergency response to Level II, the second-highest, on Saturday. It suspended railway service across the island and cancelled more than 400 flights to and from the cities of Haikou and Sanya.

In Macao, one person was injured due to the wind and rain on Chaba's approach, state televisions reported.