SINGAPORE: A ship carrying 4,191 cars sank yesterday after colliding with an oil tanker in a busy shipping lane just south of Singapore.

Twenty crew members were rescued from the sunken vessel and there were no reports of oil leaks.

The cause of the accident was not clear. Weather was fine at the time and both ships communicated with each other before the crash, officials said.

The collision between car carrier MV Hyundai No 105 and the tanker Mt Kaminesan, carrying 279,949 tons of crude oil, occurred early yesterday, the Maritime and Ports Authority of Singapore said.

Rescue tugs towed the Panama-registered tanker into Singapore for repairs, Ports Authority spokeswoman Theresa Pong said. Its crew of 26, comprising six Japanese and 20 Filipinos, remained on the vessel. There was no oil leak, Pong said.

Tugs also towed the car carrier out of the busy shipping lane - which is used by vessels travelling between west and east Asia - before it sank just before dawn yesterday in 40-metre-deep waters that belong to neighbouring Indonesia, about 5 nautical miles from Singapore's main island.

The vessel left the South Korean port of Ulsan on May 16 and was headed for Germany.

The vehicles were insured, so the company will not suffer a financial loss because of the accident, Hyundai official Kim Hwo-young said.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 05/24/2004 page1)