Japan coastguard rescues 10 after cargo ship sinks

TOKYO - Japan's coastguard said Friday it rescued 10 foreign crew members who abandoned a cargo ship that sank off the country's north coast, but added that three of them were "unconscious".

The 1,915-ton Cambodia-registered Ming Guang was carrying scrap metal from the northern Japanese port of Hakodate to South Korea when it sprang a leak and began sinking late Thursday, a local coastguard official said.

"The crewmen abandoned the ship just before it sank," he added.

All 10 crew - two Bangladeshis, seven Chinese and one from Myanmar - were plucked from chilly waters in the strait separating Japan's main Honshu and northernmost Hokkaido islands.

"Of the 10, three were unconscious," the Japanese official said, adding the trio were sent to hospital but he offered no further details.

The official said their nationalities were not immediately known.