A Macao cargo ship capsized Tuesday evening at the estuary of south China's Pearl River, leaving six people missing as of Wednesday night.

A source with the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Communications said the 500-ton ship, with seven on board, came across with fresh gales and capsized five nautical miles northwest of Guishan Island at 7:49 PM.

The rescue bureau immediately organized a rescue operation and picked up one crewmember, a native of Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, at 9:40 PM.

A helicopter was dispatched from Hong Kong on Wednesday to assist in rescue efforts, but weather conditions limited its use.

The other five crew and the captain remained missing as of 8:00 PM Wednesday. Two of the 11 containers on board had been salvaged.

The unrecovered containers and ship now pose threat to other vessels in the area.

The Guangdong provincial maritime rescue center has mobilized many ships to continue searching for the sailors who remain missing.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn April 14, 2005)