Japanese fishing boat hits cargo ship, 13 missing

TOKYO - A Japanese fishing boat with a crew of 22 collided with a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean off eastern Japan early Monday and 13 of them are missing, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The 119-ton Horiei Maru with 17 Japanese and five Indonesians on board clashed into the Panama-registered 25,047-ton Nikkei Tiger in waters about 900 kilometers east of Miyagi around 2:30 am and may have sunk, the 2nd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters said.

Nine of the 22 on the Horiei Maru - five Japanese and four Indonesians - were rescued by another fishing boat around 7:00 am, the coast guard said, adding they are searching for the missing.

The coast guard received a distress call from the Horiei Maru, from Mie, western Japan, at around 2:30 am Monday.

The crew members of the cargo vessel are all safe.