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Death toll in South Korea trawler tragedy rises to 19

Six survivors and all the bodies of those killed are to be transported to South Korea’s Oyang-96 ship

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, December 4. /TASS/. A total of 19 people have been officially confirmed dead after a South Korean trawler Oryong-501 sank in the Bering Sea earlier this week, the head of a local maritime rescue center, Arthur Reetz, said on Thursday.

Seven bodies of the fishermen have been retrieved, and four of them — two South Koreans, one Filipino and one Indonesian — have been identified. Another 34 people have gone missing.

Six survivors and all the bodies of those killed are to be transported to South Korea’s Oyang-96 ship.

The Russian Fleet has announced plans to stop the active phase of searches in the Bering Sea starting from Thursday. Four Russian vessels — Karolina 77, Nevelsk, Yantar 1, Vladimir Bradyuk — will remain in the area.

Four South Korean vessels will continue the search effort on December 5. A decision is to be taken later on whether a US Coast Guard ship with a helicopter onboard and a Hercules-C130 plane will be further involved in the operation.

The trawler, with 62 people on board, mostly citizens of Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea, on December 1 sank off Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula after stormy weather had caused seawater to flood its storage areas.