Hong Kong, March 24: 18 Ukrainian sailors were feared dead on Monday after they were trapped underwater in their capsized tugboat in Hong Kong for nearly 45 hours amid strong currents, a salvage company said.

"Their chances for survival are very slim," spokesman Zhang Jianwen of China's Guangzhou Salvage Bureau told the in a phone interview.

Zhang said the bureau's divers had not found any bodies or survivors. The divers were also tying up the Ukrainian tugboat and preparing it for a move from its current depth of 115 feet to shallower waters to ease rescue efforts, he said.

Preparation for the move was expected to take several days and a large Chinese salvage ship will be dispatched to Hong Kong from nearby waters Friday, Zhang said. He said the salvage ship would arrive Friday or Saturday.

Earlier, officials had said the sailors could have found a pocket of air that would enable them to survive. However, divers did not hear any return signal when they knocked on the capsized boat yesterday.

The tugboat Neftegaz 67, which had been detained in Hong Kong in 2003 with safety problems - sank and has been lying upside down underwater since late Saturday, when it collided with Chinese cargo ship Yao Hai in waters northwest of Hong Kong's outlying Lantau Island.

The 264-foot-long Ukrainian vessel sank quickly but the Chinese ship suffered only bow damage and stayed afloat, officials said. Only seven of the 25 on the Ukrainian ship were found.

The Neftegaz 67 was detained in Hong Kong in September 2003 for safety problems, according to documents from Hong Kong's Marine Department.