Four Chinese crew members were confirmed dead while five others remain missing following a collision between two ships early Friday morning off Japan's eastern coast, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo said. 

The collision occurred at 5:10 AM (2010 GMT) about 10 kilometers southwest of the Cape Inubosaki in the Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

The Wei Hang 9, a 3,947-ton freighter registered in Malta, with 21 Chinese crew members onboard sank after the incident. The other ship, a Japanese-registered 499-ton freighter, survived the accident and its crew remained unhurt.

The embassy has formed an emergency team to deal with the aftermath, and contacted relevant Japanese departments to search and rescue the missing. Two consulates from the embassy have arrived at the hospital and visited the rescued sailors, some of whom were slightly injured.

Japan Coast Guard ships and helicopters searched for the missing Chinese crew members. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

The sunken ship set off from Shiogama in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture and was bound for Dalian, a port in northeast China's Liaoning Province, carrying 5,800 tons of scrap iron.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2005)