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Two vessels sent to help grounded freighter near Sakhalin

The freighter was thrown by the storm to the sand on Friday morning. It is standing straight on the keel

VLADIVOSTOK, December 7 (Itar-Tass) — Two vessels are sent to help the transport ship that is aground near Sakhalin.

The vessels will approach the site in four-five hours, a source at the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Far Eastern regional centre said.

According to the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk sea rescue coordination centre, the freighter was carrying several containers and eight units of equipment from Vladivostok to the Sakhalin port of Korsakov. The ship is 87 metres long, and its draft is more than four metres. The freighter was thrown by the storm to the sand on Friday morning. It is standing straight on the keel. There is no threat to the lives of the crewmembers. No oil leakage is seen.

The freighter is registered in the port of Korsakov and belongs to a company based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

According to the captain, the ship ran aground because its power units failed to cope with the strong current and the wind that reached 30 m/sec, and waves were five metres high at the site.

Operational headquarters work at the Emergencies Ministry's Sakhalin and Far Eastern regional centres to gather information about the situation. The Yuzho-Sakhalinsk centre coordinates the rescue operation.