The accident happened at about 8 pm Saturday, January 6th, when the Panama-registered oil tanker SANCHI and the Hong Kong cargo ship CF CRYSTAL collided 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze Estuary.

The 274-meter-long oil tanker, which belongs to Bright Shipping of Iran, was heading from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tons of gas condensate with32 crew members.

The Hong Kong cargo ship, 225 meters in length, belongs to Wenlin Changfeng Shipping from Zhejiang province. Carrying 64,000 tons of food, the ship was bound for Guangdong province from the United States with 21 Chinese crew members onboard.

The oil tanker caught on fire after the collision and the 32 crew members onboard went missing, while 21 crew members on the cargo ship were rescued, as the damage to the ship did not compromise safety, the statement said.

The Panama-registered oil tanker Sanchi is seen ablaze on Jan 7, 2018.

On Sunday January 7th, a maritime law enforcement vessel and two special rescue vessels arrived at the site to conduct search and rescue operations. Fire experts, the Chinese coast guard, three specialized cleaning vessels and a high-power tugwere arrived at the accident site to assist with rescue and investigation work.

The South Korean coast guard also sent a vessel and rescue helicopter to the spot.

Thirteen vessels - 10 Chinese, two Japanese and one from South Korea - are participating in the search and rescue operation, including searching for victims, contamination control and putting out the fire on Jan 12, 2018. 

The Panama-registered oil tanker Sanchi suddenly reignited on Sunday January 14th,with smoke and flames shooting up 800 meters, and sank at 4:45 pm eight days after colliding, 151 nautical miles from the collision site, the oil slick and wreck continues to blaze on the surface of the water, forming a 10 square kilometer oil contamination belt.

The Panama-registered oil tanker Sanchi suddenly reignited on Sunday, with smoke and flames shooting up 800 meters. 

A large amount of oil from the spill continued to burn on the sea's surface, affecting the environment, the consistency of petroleum material in the seawater in the area was up to 25 micrograms per liter on Saturday before the ship sank, the State Oceanic Administration said on Sunday evening.It did not provide a context asto whether that was serious or not.

China Central Television reported that the fire died out just before 10 am on Monday January 15th, but the surface area covered by the oil spill has widened,tanker's sunken hulk could keep spewing waste, damage seabed

The nation has also spared no effort in the search and rescue of crew members from the shipand will cooperate with Iran to investigate the accident, Lu Kang told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday,January 16th.

China has sentair and marine surveillance forces to monitor the oil leak caused by the sunken oil tanker Sanchi and will continue to work with other nations in handling this matter, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.