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Chinese-crewed cargo ship catches fire in Japan

Dunya News

The HAODA 6 was carrying 980 tonnes of iron scrap from Chiba to the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo.

A Cambodian-flagged cargo ship, with a crew of 10 including eight Chinese, caught fire in a channel in western Japan Friday, the coastguard said.One of the agencys vessels was joined by a local fire department boat, which sprayed water at the 1,496-tonne freighter HAODA 6 after fire broke out in its hold in waters between the main Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu.The authorities received a distress call from the freigher at around 3:10 am (1810 GMT Thursday), a spokesman for the Kyushu branch of Japans coastguard said.Smoke stopped spewing out from the ship by 10:00 am but we are continuing to spray water to cool the ships hull, he told AFP by telephone. There is still a possibility that the fire is smoldering inside.No injury or oil spill was reported and the ship was towed to a point some 300 metres (yards) off port in the city of Kitakyushu, the official said. The crew also included two Myanmar nationals.The HAODA 6 was carrying 980 tonnes of iron scrap from Chiba, near Tokyo, to the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo, the official said.