At least 12 sailors on a Chinese-flagged cargo ship have died of suspected food poisoning off Vietnam's southern coast, a government official said on Friday.
After receiving distress calls from the ship's captain, authorities in the island district of Con Dao deployed helicopters to bring the victims and nine other sailors to a hospital onshore, according to Huynh Trung Son, a local government official.
"The survivors are in critical condition and our medical staff are trying to save them," Son said via telephone.
