Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa is searching for two Vietnamese sailors who went missing after a gas explosion onboard a Taiwanese fishing boat.

The accident left two other Vietnamese sailors dead last month.

The eight other Vietnamese sailors injured in the explosion returned home Saturday after medical treatment in South Africa. The bodies of the two dead sailors were also brought home.

On April 29, the Lai Ching suffered from a gas explosion while it was fishing on the southwest Atlantic, 2,963 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) east of Paraguay, the Taipei Times reported.

After the accident, the Taiwanese vessel Hsiang Man -Ching, the nearest vessel in the vicinity, rescued crew members who abandoned the ship and were in lifeboats.

Of 37 crew members, six, including two Vietnamese, were killed. Eighteen sailors were injured and four went missing.

The Vietnamese sailors that died are Le Xuan Sang and Hoang Tri, and the two missing are Nguyen Chau Bay and Luu Dinh Tuan, according to Vietnam News Agency, which quoted the boat owner.

There were 12 Indonesians, 12 Vietnamese, eight Filipinos, three Chinese and two Taiwanese on the boat.