Rescuers have found two bodies of the six Russian canoeists who
had been missing in northwest China's Xinjiang since Sept. 2,
sources with the local rescue headquarters said Saturday.
Four rescuers, including three Russians and a Chinese, crossed
the river and found the bodies around 01:20?PM on Saturday
under two canoes, spotted earlier at some 58 kilometers north of
Omisha, a village at the mid-point of the Yurungkax River in
southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said Zhang Shaoyun,
deputy chief of the rescue headquarters.
The bodies have been transported back to the northern bank of
the river, and will later be sent back to Hotan, Zhang said, adding
that their identities are yet to be confirmed once they are sent
back to Hotan.
An eight-member group, including five Russians and three
Chinese, were parachuted Saturday morning to the search area, where
eight Chinese rescuers have already been camped.
They will work out plans to search for the other four missing
Russians, Zhang said.
The six Russian tourists failed to meet their Chinese
interpreter in Hotan in southern Xinjiang as planned on Sept. 2
after they began a canoeing trip on the Yurungkax River in
mid-August.
China has mobilized about 1,700 soldiers, policemen and local
herdsmen to fan out and look for the missing tourists.
A Russian cargo-transport plane arrived in Xinjiang on Tuesday
with a 40-Russian search and rescue crew to join the search.
On Wednesday, searchers using telescopes from the helicopter
spotted clothes, iron bars used to fix canoes and two red canoes at
the upper streams of the river. Another canoe was also spotted
about 13 kilometers downstream from the site.
The objects were later confirmed by the two villager guides to
be possessions of the missing Russians.
The missing Russians have been identified as Vladimir
Smetannikov, Sergey Chernik, Andrey Pautov, Dmitry Tishchenko, Ivan
Chernik and Alexander Zverev, with the youngest aged 25 and the
oldest 47.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2007)