Strong gales accompanying a cold front from Siberia capsized a cargo ship Monday on East China Sea, killing one seaman and left 13 others missing, maritime salvage authorities said Tuesday.

All the 14 victims were on board a 2,500-tonnage cargo ship en route from Tianjin to Quanzhou which capsized in high winds at around 3:40 AM Monday.

The Shanghai-based East China Sea Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Communications immediately sent a rescue vessel and a helicopter to the site, but only salvaged two people, one of whom died later in hospital.

Search-and-rescue work is going on for the 13 missing seamen.

In another shipwreck on Monday, the rescue bureau salvaged the 14-member crew on board a liquefied gas-carrying ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River, sources of the bureau told Xinhua.

Stormy weather still caused three shipwrecks from Nov. 11 to 13 on the East China Sea. By Tuesday, two of the ships in distress have been brought to safety and 17 crew members from a sunken ship have been rescued.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2005)