The US Navy has identified all seven sailors killed after their destroyer was partially flooded following a collision with a container ship off Japan's coast at the weekend, confirming their deaths for the first time.

The crew were reported missing after Saturday's predawn collision, triggering a major US-Japanese search operation, with divers scouring damaged areas of the destroyer.

On Sunday, US authorities tacitly acknowledged there were no survivors as they ended the search, but declined to say how many bodies had been found until the families were notified.

The 154-metre (500-foot) Fitzgerald - commissioned in 1995 and deployed in the Iraq war in 2003 - was pulled by a tugboat back to its base on Saturday in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo.

The navy said the bodies of the missing crew were found by the divers in flooded sleeping quarters.

"The remains of seven sailors previously reported missing were located in flooded berthing compartments, after divers gained access to the spaces," it said, adding that the deceased sailors ranged in age from 19 to 37.

On Sunday, US 7th Fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin said the crew would have had little chance of escaping the "tremendous" amount of water that gushed into the ship after the accident left a large gash in its side.

Source: ANNnewsCH