Vietnamese rescue workers had recovered four bodies from a capsized oil tanker by Saturday and were trying to contain an oil spill that hit beaches at a southern resort, officials said.
About 30 tonnes of oil had escaped from the overturned vessel, blackening the coastline at the resort town of Vung Tau and raising fears the rest of the 1,700 tonnes of crude oil could leak from the ship's 10 tanks. Divers had recovered four of the 14 sailors missing since the Duc Tri capsized in rough seas late last Sunday off southern Vietnam.
A sole survivor, a 50-year-old man, was plucked from the South China Sea by a passing fishing boat two days after the shipwreck. "We have to date found four bodies inside the shipwreck and brought them back to shore," Nguyen Tam Hung, head of the military command operations department in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, told AFP by telephone.
Emergency workers had fixed the ship with ropes and anchors about one nautical mile (1.1 miles, 1.8 kilometres) off Ba Kiem Head, said Trinh Vu Anh, deputy head of the southern agency in charge of containing oil spills. "The biggest concern now is the weather," he said, describing seas that were so rough early Saturday that divers had to temporarily halt operations.
"If high waves break loose the anchors, the ship could continue to drift and hit submerged rocks. This could rupture the oil tanks and all the 1,700 tons of crude oil could spill out. That would be a very serious situation." He added: "We are trying to take the bodies out of the wreck, their relatives are waiting onshore. They are very anxious and emotional.
"Then we will pump out the oil from the tanks, but it will take time and depends on the weather." Anh said so far an estimated 30 tonnes of engine fuel and crude oil had escaped from the shipwreck, sullying about five kilometres (three miles) of coastline.
At Vung Tau - a popular seaside resort and oil town east of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest hub and port - hundreds of people were at work with rakes and shovels to remove oil clumps that washed up on the beaches. "All the hotels here have sent their staff to collect oil from the beaches this morning," said Tran Thi My Phuong, working at Vung Tau's Sammy Hotel.