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Chinese smugglers collide with Coast Guard, two killed

A patrol raft of the Kinmen Coast Guard collided Friday night with a sampan from Fujian, southern China, off the coast of the outlying county of Kinmen, killing two Chinese fishermen aboard the sampan, according to the Kinmen Coast Guard Office.

The patrol raft lost power and ran aground after the collision and the crew were picked up by another patrol raft after the accident, said the Kinmen Coast Guard Office.

The accident took place when Kinmen Coast Guard radar spotted a Chinese sampan suspected of carrying smuggled goods sailing toward Chinyu on Kinmen.

Two patrol rafts were sent to intercept the sampan and at about 10pm, the sampan, finding it was being trailed by the patrol rafts, tried to jettison its contraband and escape at high speed.

The two patrol rafts approached the sampan to stop it, but one of them collided with the sampan head-on in the dark when the sampan made a sudden turn in an attempt to escape.

Two of the four crew aboard the sampan fell into the sea during the collision and were rescued by a Chinese fishing boat operating nearby.

After the accident, the Kinmen Coast Guard Office sent another three patrol boats to the scene to search for the other two crewmen, only to find their bodies still on the sampan.

After checking with their counterparts in the Chinese port of Xiamen, the Kinmen Coast Guard Office said the sampan came from Dadeng, Xiamen City.

The dead were named as skipper Chang Fucheng and crew member Zhang Zongrong.

After the accident, a dozen Chinese fishing boats surrounded the abandoned patrol raft and the sampan until six Chinese patrol boats arrived on the scene yesterday morning to investigate, according to the Kinmen Coast Guard Office.
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