Salvage operation on sunken Ukrainian ship begins in H.K.

Salvage operations on a Ukrainian vessel that sank in Hong Kong waters last month has begun with the help of Asia's biggest crane barge, the Marine Department said Wednesday.
The heavy-lift crane barge "Hua Tian Long" of the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau arrived to help retrieve the wreck of the Ukrainian oilfield support vessel Neftegaz 67 that collided with China-registered bulk carrier Yao Hai and sank 37 meters to the seabed off Lantau, Hong Kong's biggest outlying island, on March 22.
Three bodies from the Ukrainian vessel were recovered, but the other 15 sailors remain missing.
"During the salvage operations, measures will be taken to ensure no oil spillage from the wreck," marine officer Lau Wing-kin said. "Hua Tian Long will make it upright, then lift up the sunken vessel. A search for missing crew in the wreck will be carried out after the wreck is lifted out of the water."
The around-the-clock salvage operation is expected to be completed by the end of April, he said.
The tug was carrying 25 crew members -- 24 Ukrainians and one Chinese.
Seven of them, including the captain, were saved shortly after the collision, but the rest went missing.
A search and rescue operation by the Fire Services Department encountered difficulties due to strong currents and the fact the tug overturned and stuck in the seabed.
The crane barge salvaged an 800-year-old Song Dynasty merchant vessel in December last year off the coastal city Yangjiang in southern China's Guangdong Province.
The old ship sunk while on a trading voyage.