Eight fishermen were saved after their ship sank in the estuary of the Yangtze River on early Wednesday morning.

The fishermen were in stable condition, according to the Maritime Safety Administration for the East China Sea, which is in charge of the rescue operation.

The fishing boat, "Hubaoyu 2368", sank in the Yangtze estuary, which is just off the Shanghai Municipality in East China, at around 11:12 PM Tuesday. All eight people fell overboard.

The Maritime Safety Administration for the East China Sea received an SOS signal from a fishing boat at 10:07 PM Tuesday and immediately dispatched salvage ship to the site.

Rescuers said it took them more than one hours to find the eight fishermen and they helped them aboard the salvage boat from the sea area of the shipwreck, where gales of force seven to eight raised waves as high as five meters.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2006)