A 275-foot Japanese submarine collided with a commercial ship about 50 kilometers off the coast of the southwestern part of the country on Monday.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said the crew aboard the Soryu-class submarine spotted the ship by its extent, and tried to avoid the ship, but was unsuccessful. Nikkei Asia reported that the collision damaged the submarine’s communications system.
Kyodo News reports that the crew used a cell phone to report the accident. Three of the crew members’ crew were slightly injured and the ship was presumably not damaged.
The navy did not identify the commercial ship, but NHK’s public television said it was the Hong Kong-registered large-scale ship Ocean Artemis. It transported 90,000 tons of iron to Okayama in western Japan after leaving the Chinese port of Qingdao last Friday with 21 Chinese crew members.
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Defense Minister Nobou Kishi called the accident “extremely deplorable”, the report said.
Associated Press contributed to this report