China's transport authority yesterday issued an emergency notice to urge the country's aquatic transport operators to strengthen safety, after dozens of people were killed or missing in recent accidents, Xinhua news agency reported.

A Dalian company's engineering ship keeled over in the sea area near Lushun of Liaoning Province on January 21, causing seven people dead or missing, the Ministry of Communications said.

On January 28, a ship, rented by a Shanghai ship engineering company and carrying the company's five repairers, sank on its way back to the Huangpu River's anabranch Sanchagang Creek. Eight people were killed or missing.

In the most recent case, two ships collided in the water area of Nantong in the Yangtze River Thursday, causing two people missing.

The ministry said the end of the weeklong holiday of the Spring Festival, from January 29 to yesterday, will bring another traffic peak, and more students will also return to the schools as the winter vacation will end soon.

The ministry said the water transport companies and authorities should pay high attention to their work to guarantee people's travel safety.

Port operators must increase spot checks to ban autos overloaded or carrying dangerous articles to get on ships, the ministry said in the notice. Maritime authorities must not let overloaded ships go, especially ferryboats.

The ministry also said the vessels of China's shipping lines, mainly China Shipping and COSCO, in the Red Sea should step up keeping watch to help search and rescue victims of the subsided Egyptian passenger ferry.

The Egyptian ferry, Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, sank 70 kilometers off the Egyptian port of Hurghada on Friday, carrying 1,300 people. Hundreds were feared dead.

(Shanghai Daily February 5, 2006)