Chinese rescuers said they have found canoes and clothes
confirmed to be abandoned by six Russians who were reportedly
missing since Sept. 2 when canoeing on a river in northwestern
Xinjiang region.
The red canoes, clothing and iron bars used for fixing canoes
were found around 3:44?PM Wednesday in two separate sites of
the riverway of the upper Yurungkax River in a third search mission
by a Chinese rescue helicopter.
The crew of the Chinese helicopter took photos of the abandoned
articles, according to the Hotan rescue headquarters.
A local villager who had served as the guide of the missing
Russians identified these articles as theirs after he saw the
photos, the headquarters said.
The Hotan headquarters and Russian rescuers are working
Wednesday night on a new plan to search the surrounding areas,
according to the headquarters
The six Russian tourists failed to show up to meet their Chinese
interpreter in Hotan as scheduled on Sept. 2 after they began
canoeing on the Yurungkax River in mid-August.
A Russian cargo-transport plane with 40 Russian search and
rescue crew arrived in Hotan on Tuesday to join the search for the
six Russian tourists.
A member of the Russian rescue crew said the missing Russians
were "experienced canoeists" and he believed they went missing
probably because they met with "technical problems".
The six Russians were identified as Vladimir Smetannikov, Sergey
Chernik, Andrey Pautov, Dmitry Tishchenko, Ivan Chernik and
Alexander Zverev, with the youngest aged 25 and the oldest 47.
Prior to the findings, around 1,100 Chinese armed police,
herdsmen and farmers had been mobilized to search for them along
the middle and lower reaches of the river, but they found no trace
of them.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2007)