2 Die after Fishing Boat Capsizes off Japan's Ibaraki

Mito, Ibaraki Pref., Jan. 6 (Jiji Press)--Two people died and three others went missing after a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, early Monday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said.

Twenty Japanese and Indonesian people were aboard the 80-ton Ohama Maru No. 8 when it capsized about 31 kilometers east of Kashima port. The dead and missing people are all Japanese.

The boat had been fishing for sardines since Sunday afternoon, according to a fisheries cooperative in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki, to which it belonged. A rescued crew member told coast guard investigators that the ship tilted gradually because of a large number of fish in the nets.

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