Eleven Taiwanese fishermen were rescued and two remained missing after their boat capsized near a disputed island chain in the East China Sea, Taiwan's coast guard said on Saturday.
The boat sank near the islands known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese after it was involved in a collision with a Panamanian oil tanker on Friday, a coast guard official said. Rescuers from Taiwan and Japan were continuing to search for the missing fishermen, including the skipper of the boat, the official said.
The Diaoyu islands are at the centre of a heated territorial dispute between Taiwan, China and Japan, which all claim the uninhabited islets. Japan's dispute with China has intensified in recent years after rich gas reserves were found nearby. Last year, Japan apologised after a Taiwanese fishing boat sank near the disputed islets following a collision with a Japanese patrol ship.