Maritime police are still searching for a sailor who was knocked into the Huangpu River by a collapsing crane on Sunday morning, but they say the chance of finding him alive is very slim.

His older brother and sister-in-law were also thrown into the river, but were rescued and are currently in stable condition in a local hospital.

The accident happened on a dock on Jungong Road, which belongs to the Shanghai Branch of the China Seafood Company, about 8:40 AM on Sunday.

Police boats were still searching the area last night in hope of finding the missing sailor, 27-year-old Zhou Fubao.

His brother Zhou Fuhong remains in the intensive care unit at Shidong Hospital with injuries he received to his head when a cable on the collapsing crane crashed into the trio, plunging them into the water.

His wife, Gao Fuyan, was also being treated at the same hospital for a large cut on her back and a broken pelvis, doctors said.

The trio hail from Jiangsu Province and make their living shipping cargo between Jiangsu and Shanghai. They were loading a shipment of steel onto their small cargo ship when a cable on the crane broke.

The missing man's wife, Quan Xuehua, was standing on the other side of the dock with their young child when the accident happened.

"I saw the cable break and crash into the dock. My husband disappeared from the ship all of a sudden," Quan said.

Zhou and his wife were quickly pulled from the water, but there was no trace of Zhou Fubao.

Officials with the Safety Production Supervision Bureau visited the site right after the accident and have begun an investigation. The company that owns the dock said the crane was capable of lifting eight tons, and the steel being moved at the time of the accident only weighed five tons.

The company officials said they conducted normal maintenance on the crane and needed to wait for the investigation to complete before they could explain the cause of the accident.

The crane that collapsed due to a broken cable and knocked three people into the Huangpu River on Sunday is seen on a dock on Jungong Road yesterday. A man remains missing while the other two have been saved.

(Shanghai Daily November 15, 2005)