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One dead, 11 missing in shipwreck on China-Myanmar border

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-01 11:41

KUNMING -- One person was confirmed dead and 11 others went missing when a ship capsized in a river on the China-Myanmar border Saturday afternoon, officials in southwest China's Yunnan Province said.

The accident happened at around 3:30 pm Saturday on the lower reaches of the Nujiang River, in Kokang of Myanmar's Shan State, a spokesman with the city government of Baoshan in Yunnan Province said Sunday.

"More than 500 Chinese soldiers, policemen and local residents joined the rescue work after calls for help were heard from across the border," he said.

Rescuers had so far retrieved the dead body of a Myanmar boy, the spokesman said.

Another 11 people remained missing, including four Chinese and seven from Myanmar.

The cause of the accident and identities of the victims are not immediately known.

Top officials in Baoshan City ordered all-out efforts to search for the missing.