GUANGZHOU -- Chinese military forces had retrieved 17 Filipino crew members from a shipwreck in the South China Sea as of 12:30 pm (Beijing Time), the Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said on Friday.

Fourteen of those rescued are in stable condition and one is in emergency care, while two had died, the command said.

It added that, at around 9:30 pm Thursday (Beijing Time), a foreign cargo ship en route from the Philippines to South China's Guangdong province had tilted and lost contact in waters about 55 nautical miles northwest of China's Huangyan Island, with a total of 21 crew members on board.

Upon receiving a report in the early hours of Friday regarding this accident, the Southern Theater Command immediately sent military aircraft to conduct search operations over the waters where the accident occurred. Two nearby China Coast Guard vessels also joined the search and rescue mission.

Chinese maritime authorities are dispatching additional rescue forces to the area, while search and rescue efforts remain ongoing, the command said.