The death toll from a shipping accident in the East China Sea rose to nine on Monday afternoon when rescuers retrieved another body from a cargo ship that sank after colliding with another ship late on Saturday night.

Twelve sailors have been rescued but eight others are still missing, sources with the maritime safety administration of Zhejiang Province revealed on Monday.

The collision occurred at around 11 PM on Saturday near the Langgang islands, northeast of Zhoushan Island, Zhejiang Province, when a cargo ship belonging to a transport company in Shenzhen crashed into another one registered in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong ship, "Huirong", sank immediately and all its 29 sailors on board were marooned out at sea.

A panel dispatched by the Ministry of Communications, headed by Wang Jinfu, vice director of China's Maritime Safety Administration, arrived in Zhoushan on Monday morning to conduct investigations into the accident.

The Zhejiang provincial maritime safety administration decided to expand its search area on Monday in the hope of finding the missing sailors.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2007)