Gaemi: Four crew members rescued and one dead as typhoon sunk ship

The vessel capsized at about 05:45 local time on Thursday (21:45 GMT Wednesday).

The nine Myanmar nationals said they decided to seperate into two groups – one of five, and another of four.

All of them were wearing life jackets, but the survivors said they had watched as three of their colleagues in other group, had their jackets swept away by high waves.

Search and rescue personnel said they had later found the body of the ship’s captain at about 06:55 on Friday. The other four in his group are still missing.

Locals found two of the survivors swept up on a beach in Kaohsiung at about 16:00 and brought them to a police station, while the Taiwanese Coast Guard rescued the other two at another part of the city’s coast later in the evening.

One of the survivors said he had swum backwards to retrieve a waist bag containing his passport, before swimming “with all his life” to reach the shore.

Another burst out crying after calling his family – he later told the coast guard that his wife and mother had thought he was dead after reading the news on Thursday.

Officials had earlier said the high waves and rough waters were hampering rescue efforts.

Photographs shared by the coast guard show the survivors clad in ponchos and towels for warmth, while coast guard staff tend to injuries on their arms and legs.