Two fisherman have died and another was fighting for his life after two boats collided with a cargo ship in Japan today, officials said, days after two men were killed in an accident with a naval vessel.
The two Japanese boats capsized in the collision with a 499-ton Panama-registered cargo ship, with three fishermen thrown into the water off western Wakayama prefecture shortly after 8:00 am, a local coastguard official said.
"They were rescued and taken to hospital. One of them died, while another was unconscious," he said. The man's death was announced shortly afterwards.
The third man is in a critical condition, the official said.
The incident came just two days after a leisure fishing boat collided with a Japanese naval transport ship -- the 8,900-ton Osumi -- in waters between two of the country's main islands. Two men were killed in the collision.
