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Search for missing Amurskaya bulk carrier unavailing so far

Total of 4,000 square kilometers of area have been scanned by a Beriyev-2000 amphibious jet, the Ternei-1 and Kapitan Gams fishing boats and the Novik tanker

VLADIVOSTOK, October 30 (Itar-Tass) — The rescuers looking for the bulk carrier Amursky with nine crew and a load of gold ore that went missing in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday said the search has been unavailing so far.

"No tracers have been found either in the sea or on the coast," the department of the Emergency Situations Ministry for the Khabarovsk Territory told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

A total of 4,000 square kilometers of area have been scanned by a Beriyev-2000 amphibious jet, the Ternei-1 and Kapitan Gams fishing boats and the Novik tanker, and a ground search party has surveyed some 30 kilometers of coastal strip.

The rescue towboat Rubin earlier left the port of Korsakov on the island of Sakhalin for the Shantar Islands in the southwest section of the Sea of Okhotsk to join the search, but it will reach the area only in four days.

The gusts of wind reach 20 meters per second in the search area which is having sleet showers, and meteorologists said the wave height would increase to five meters.

The missing dry cargo ship was carrying 700 tons of gold-containing ore from the port township of Kiran in the Khabarovsk territory to the port of Okhotsk. It left the Kiran port, Tuguro-Chumikansky district on Sunday, October 28.

According to the technical specifications of the Amurskaya, it has the weight-carrying capacity of 611 tons, which means it might be carrying an extra 89 tons of ore. Its length is 55 meters. The vessel was built in 1973.

It had a crew of 9 aboard. A majority of the seamen are residents of the Primorye Territory.