IRNA � A military rescue team comprising 12 experts dispatched by Iran's Army will contribute to the rescue operation to search for the Iranian sailors who may have been trapped in the tanker collided in the eastern China waters.


The team will arrive in China on Friday afternoon to participate in the operation of searching for Iranian sailors with the Chinese rescue team.

The Iranian tanker collided with a Chinese vessel off East China coast on January 6 and all the crew on board went missing.

The tanker, Sanchi, was carrying condensates to South Korea. The incident resulted in blast and fire.

From the total 32 crew members (30 Iranians, and 2 Bangladeshis) on board of Iranian tanker, 31 have gone missing. The body of an Iranian crew was found 3 miles away from the tanker on Monday.

All the 21 crew members on board the bulk freighter who were Chinese, have been rescued.

Operation to extinguish the fire and rescue the missing crew are still under way.