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Search for GINGA ship sunken in Laperuza Strait, suspended

It has become known that the ship owner is registered in Panama

VLADIVOSTOK, December 25 (Itar-Tass) — The search for the crew of the sunken GINGA vessel in the Laperuza Strait was suspended with darkness and will continue on Monday at dawn.

Russian ships, participating in the rescue operation, went from the storm to the Morzh Bay of the Sakhalin Aniva gulf, Itar-Tass learnt at the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk marine rescue sub-centre.

According to the sub-centre, there were eight people aboard the ship, supposedly a fishing vessel: five Russians and three Indonesians. The bodies of three seamen were found. Two of them were identified as Russian citizens, while the body of the third dead man was not identified.

It has become known that the ship owner is registered in Panama.

It was established that the vessel was sailing from the Japanese port of Vakkanai (Hokkaido Island), flying the Cambodian flag. A sanoradio buoy went off on the GINGA early this morning.

The ship was in distress on the border of responsibility zones of Russia and Japan in the area of Kamen Opasnosty (Stone of Danger) rock, located 14 kilometres south-east of Cape Krilion, the southernmost point of Sakhalin.

The Kamen Opasnosty is eight metres above the water surface and dangerously interferes with navigation in the Laperuza Strait. A beacon was built on the rock in 1913.

The rescue operation was conducted on Sunday in cooperation with the Japanese marine rescue centre, located in the city of Otaru, Hokkaido. A Japanese patrol ship lifted at midday an emergency buoy and two bodies in hydro-thermo costumes and one empty hydro costume.

The crew of the Russian trawler Zaliv Vasilyeva lifted from water one body in hydro-thermo costume with the inscription Izumrudny (Emerald). The Russian side also engaged in the search operation the rescue ship Atlas, the trawlers Ozersk, Paliya, Zaliv Vasilyeva and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ministry for Emergencies. The Japanese side – the Rebun patrol ship and a plane.