BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Five sailors are dead and three more missing after a Chinese container ship sank in waters off the country's northeast, official media reported on Sunday.

The "Xinmingfa 17" sank on Saturday afternoon with 146 containers and 14 people onboard, the Xinhua news agency reported.

It was enroute from Yingkou, a port in northeast China's Liaoning province, to Fuzhou on the east coast. The report did not explain why it sank.

Six people onboard were rescued by ships and helicopters. But at least five have joined the country's long list of people killed in work and transport accidents, including in its fast-growing shipping sector.

In the year up to the end of August, China experienced 344 deaths from ship and boat accidents, a fall of 4 percent on the same period a year earlier, Xinhua reported last month.

Helicopters and ships were searching for the three missing people on Sunday, the accident report said. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani0

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