5 more sailors rescued from Russian ship
2013-01-28 19:47
Moscow - Five more sailors were rescued on Monday from a
Russian crab boat that capsized in the Sea of Japan with a crew of 30 Russians
and Indonesians on board, emergency officials said.
But 15 sailors remained missing and some were reported to
have died in the freezing waters.
The Shans-101 capsized on Sunday off of Russia's Pacific
coast.
That evening, 10 crew members were found in a lifeboat
and rescued by a passing freighter.
Five more, including the ship captain, were found in a
second lifeboat on Monday, emergency officials said.
The fishing vessel was hit by two waves just as it
changed course and quickly capsized, Yury Boldychev, a representative of the
ship's owner, Vostok-1, said in a television interview.
Ten minutes later, the crew was ordered into the
lifeboats, he said.
Most of them were wearing only T-shirts and shorts in
temperatures of minus 15°C.
Russian television showed the first 10 rescued sailors
arriving in the city of Kholmsk on the Sakhalin Peninsula, where they were
examined by doctors and questioned by investigators.
All were reported to be suffering from frostbite.
The sailors told investigators that eight men in their
lifeboat had frozen to death and their bodies had been put into the sea to make
room in the lifeboat, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The fate of the remaining seven sailors remained unclear.
The search by air, sea and land was to continue on
Tuesday.
The crew consisted of 19 Russians and 11 Indonesians.
- AP
