Sailors found dead after US Navy destroyer collides with merchant ship off Japan coast

The bodies of sailors missing after a US destroyer collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Japan have been found, the US Navy has confirmed.

Seven sailors were left missing and three injured after the incident on Saturday.

The USS Fitzgerald was damaged below the water line on its starboard side and there was flooding in three compartments, the navy said.

The missing sailors were located in the flooded berthing compartments, a statement confirmed.

No one on the container ship was reported to have been injured.

The ship's captain, Commander Bryce Benson, was airlifted to the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka and was in a stable condition with a head injury,

Two other crew suffered cuts and bruises and were evacuated.

The coastguard said it received an emergency call from Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal at around 2.20am local time on Saturday (6.20pm Friday BST) that it had collided with the Fitzgerald south west of Yokusuka, Japan.

The Fitzgerald collided with the merchant ship 56 nautical miles from Yokosuka, a city south of Tokyo that is home to a major US naval base.