US joins search for 32 missing after ships collide off China

BEIJING, CHINA: The US Navy has joined the search for 32 missing from an Iranian oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a bulk freighter off China's east coast.

China, South Korea and the US sent ships and planes to search for the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis missing since the collision late Saturday. The US Navy, which sent a P-8A aircraft from Okinawa, Japan, to aid the search, said late Sunday none of the missing crew had been found.

The Panama-registered tanker Sanchi was sailing from Iran to South Korea when it collided with the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal in the East China Sea, China's Ministry of Transport said.

All 21 crew members of the Crystal were rescued, the ministry said.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the collision.