A boat capsize has left one person dead and two missing off China's east coast, a Zhejiang Provincial Maritime Bureau source said on Tuesday.

So far, there has been no other information.

Elsewhere, maritime rescue services were searching for at least 11 seamen off China's east coast after two separate incidents, a local maritime authorities source said.

Early on Tuesday off the coast from Zhejiang's Zhoushan City, a cargo ship with six crew on board sank at 4:30 a.m., according to the provincial maritime bureau.

Staff from the provincial Maritime Rescue Center found a life raft containing four people off Cezi Island, of whom one was dead. The other three were rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.

The ship, heading from Shanghai to Ningbo, belonged to Shengsishengxing Ocean Shipping Co. Ltd of Zhoushan, an island city on the East China Sea.

In all, nine ships and a helicopter were searching for the two missing crew. The cause of the accident was still under investigation.

On Sunday, a boat carrying at least six fishermen was believed to have sunk sometime in the 12 hours before 7:00 a.m. off the coast of Jiangsu Province on Sunday.

In the other incident, five crew from a ship carrying sandstone from the eastern Fujian Province to Rui'an city in southeast Zhejiang, were missing off Wenzhou City on Sunday, said Li Hua, Wenzhou Maritime Bureau deputy director.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2008)