Crew members rescued as cargo ship capsizes off Japan

All five seafarers onboard a capsized Japanese cargo ship have been rescued.

The 1,600-dwt general cargo vessel Meisen 2 (built 1996) got into difficulty off the coast of Chiba prefecture on 14 May, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The Meisen 2 was 13.5km (8.3 miles) from Minamiboso when it went aground.

The cause of the accident is unknown, but footage shot from an aircraft and posted to YouTube by Japanese media showed the ship lying on the seabed metres from a rocky shore in a gentle swell.