One dead following vessel collision off Japan's Kobe Port

A vessel capsizing incident caused by a collision between a harbour tug and a cargo vessel off the Port of Kobe in Japan has left one person dead, the country's Kyodo News Agency reports.

The incident occurred at around 18:00 local time on Saturday, November 23, when the harbour tug Kakuei Maru and an unidentified Marshall Islands-flagged vessel that had just departed the Port of Kobe collided with each other.

The tug capsized due to the force of the impact, and two of the three crewmembers ended up in the water. Both were safely rescued and eventually brought to hospital.

The 73-year-old captain was found on board the capsized tug and was pronounced deceased shortly afterwards.

No injuries have meanwhile been reported among the 21-strong crew on the cargo vessel, which was en route to Singapore at the time of the incident.

The Japan Coast Guard has since launched an investigation to identify the events that led to the second fatal vessel collision involving a tug to occur in Japanese waters in less than a week.

On November 17, a tug and a yacht collided off Yamaguchi Prefecture. The yacht sank shortly after the collision with its four occupants still on board.

Of the four people who were on the yacht, three were later pronounced deceased while the fourth suffered only minor injuries.