China: 19 seaweed harvesters die as tide comes in

An incoming tide swept away and left dead 19 people who were harvesting seaweed in eastern China, state media reported today.

Rescuers had recovered the bodies of three men and 16 women in Rudong, a county in Jiangsu province, where 21 workers had been using tractors to gather seaweed on Sunday while the tide was out, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The sea started to return in the early evening and by midnight it was around 25 feet high, it said.

Currents pulled the workers into the ocean when they were trying to escape, Xinhua said.