Sailors missing after US Navy ship collision near Singapore
Ten US Navy sailors are missing and five are injured after a US destroyer collided with a merchant ship near Singapore.
Vessels and aircraft from the US, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors.
Four sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth injured sailor did not require further medical attention.
One of the injured sailors, Operations Specialist 2nd Class Navin Ramdhun, posted a Facebook message telling family and friends he was OK and awaiting surgery for an arm injury.
Zulkefli Abu Bakar, Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency Chief, said: "This incident happened in Malaysian waters, Malaysian territorial waters in fact."
He added that the incident occurred 4.5 nautical miles (8.3 kilometers) from Malaysia's coast.
There was no immediate explanation for the collision, and the Navy said an investigation would be conducted. Singapore, at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, is one of the world's busiest ports and a US ally, with its naval base regularly visited by American warships.
The ship sustained "significant" hull damage and crew berths, machinery and communications rooms were flooded. An enormous dent was visible on the ship's port side.
There was no fuel or oil is visible on the water’s surface near the ship when it docked around 8am Monday.
It is the second collision involving a ship from the Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific in two months. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other in waters off Japan.
The McCain, which is based at the fleet's homeport of Yokosuka, Japan, had been heading to Singapore for a routine port visit.
It was commissioned in 1994 and has a crew of 23 officers, 24 chief petty officers and 291 enlisted sailors, according the Navy's website.
The USS John McCain is named after the US Senator and former Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's father and grandfather, both of whom served in the US Navy.