WWII wreck on which nearly 1,000 Australians died found

Deep-sea explorers said Saturday they had located the wreck of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines killing nearly 1,000 Australians aboard.The ship -- sunk on July 1, 1942, by a US submarine -- was found at a depth of more than four kilometres, said the maritime archaeology group Silentworld Foundation, which organised the mission.

After five years of planning, explorers began searching for the wreck on April 6 in the South China Sea northwest of the Philippines' main island of Luzon. They made a positive sighting just 12 days later using high-tech equipment including an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with sonar.

The wreckage will remain undisturbed on the seabed, where it lies at a greater depth than the Titanic, out of respect for the families of those who perished, the foundation said. No artefacts or human remains are to be removed.