HONG KONG (TIP): Authorities launched an air and sea rescue operation on May 5 to find 11 crew members from a Chinese cargo ship after it collided with another vessel and sank just outside Hong Kong’s teeming waters.

Four helicopters and more than 20 ships from China and Hong Kong were deploying to the waters near Po Toi, an island lying at the edge of Hong Kong’s territory where the ship sank in the early hours of the morning, officials said.

“Two cargo ships collided and one of them sank,” a police spokeswoman told AFP. Aerial footage of the scene shown on Hong Kong television showed an oil slick on the surface of the sea where the ship is believed to have gone down. A fire department spokesman said there were 12 people in total on board, with police confirming that one male was later rescued and sent to hospital.

The survivor, who was plucked from the sea by a passing fishing boat, suffered minor injuries to his hands and feet, she said. China said it was sending three helicopters and more than a dozen ships to the scene, according to the official Xinhua news agency, while Hong Kong sent a helicopter and eight rescue vessels.

A fire department spokesman said the collision took place three miles (nearly five kilometres) south of Po Toi, just outside Hong Kong maritime territory. The 97-metre long Chinese cargo ship, the Zhong Xing 2, was carrying cement from the Northern Chinese province of Hebei to the city of Haikou in the nation’s southern island of Hainan, the city’s Marine Department told AFP.