(Officials correct to make clear the sunken ship was carrying Sri Lanka flag, not Singapore)

DHAKA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A ship carrying more than 3,000 tonnes of rice from India sank near the outer anchorage of Bangladesh's Chittagong port on Wednesday, port officials said.

They said the Sri Lanka-flagged vessel Badulu Valley was in collision with an empty, anchored Chinese oil tanker called Heng Zhou, and sank in the Bay of Bengal during the afternoon.

Port officials had earlier said the vessel was carrying a Singapore flag.

Port officials had also earlier given the name of the vessel as M.V. Batulu but the agent for the ship later corrected this.

"The ship sank in the bay with its 17 crew on board," a port official said.

Tugboats from the port authority and the Bangladesh Navy rescued 16 crew members, he said, but the fate of the remaining member was unknown.

The crew comprised nationals from Myanmar and India, officials said.

The sea was choppy at the time of the accident because of strong monsoon winds.

Another port official said that efforts were underway to salvage the ship and its cargo. "The coast guard is trying to find the location of ship," he said.

The ship's local agent, Continental Liner Agency, told the port authority that they would take measures to recover the sunken vessel.

"The 88.87-metre (290 feet) ship was starting for the port jetty from the outer anchorage when the accident occurred," Continental official Mohammed Saiful said. (Reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Nazimuddin Shaymol in Chittagong; Editing by Anis Ahmed and David Fogarty)

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