Nine sailors are missing after two freighters collided in Southeast China's Fujian Province on Wednesday morning, authorities and rescuers said.

Twelve sailors were rescued from the Panama-registered freighter which sank early on Wednesday morning near Ningde, Fujian. All of the 21 sailors on the sunken freighter are Chinese, said a spokesman with the Shanghai-based East Sea Salvage Bureau under the Ministry of Communications.

Three sailors are being treated at hospital for serious injuries, the spokesman said. Four rescue boats are searching the area for the missing people.

The Panama-registered freighter "EPELGAIN" was loaded with timber from Liberia on route to Zhangjiagang, east China's Jiangsu Province when it sunk.

The crew of the other ship, the Chinese container ship "New Lianyungang", rescued the sailors from the sunken vessel. There have been no reports on the condition of the Chinese freighter.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2006)