Ten sailors on a Tuvalu cargo ship were rescued early Saturday when the ship seriously tilted and was about to capsize, said Ministry of Communications' Donghai (East China Sea) Rescue Bureau.

The bureau said it received an alarm at 11:50 p.m. (1550 GMT) Friday that the cargo ship, Sun Lake, was in danger on the sea near the Yangtze River estuary, or 30.565 degrees north latitude and 122.22 degrees east longitude.

The bureau immediately sent two rescue ships and saved all the sailors on the 54.9-meter-long cargo ship by three o'clock Saturday morning.

All the sailors are Chinese nationals with nine from Shandong Province and one from Hubei Province.

The ship, loaded with 770 tons of steel, left Shanghai Harbor on Friday afternoon for the Republic of Korea but encountered strong wind in the evening.

The wind displaced the cargoes and then caused a tilt, said the bureau.