(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-18 11:24

MANILA -- Twenty-six Chinese seamen have been rescued from a cargo that is sinking off the northern coast of the Philippines, a Chinese embassy official in Manila said on Monday.

The Panama-registered cargo, with 28 crew members on board, started to go down near the coast of Philippines' Ilocos Norte province at Sunday night, said Huang Li, the consulate official with the embassy, quoting sources of Chinese and Philippine marine rescue teams.

Twenty-six seamen, before being trapped in the ocean, were quickly picked up by a passing Japanese crude vessel while the captain and a technician insisted on staying on the sinking cargo to rescue the goods.

Philippine coastguard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Armando Balilo said he has sent rescue team, including a rescue boat, a helicopter and a plane, to the scene and he is expecting the rescue update on Monday afternoon.

Balilo said he had no information about the cause and other details of the accident so far.