After communication with the ship was lost, Japanese coastal authorities sent five patrol boats and two helicopters to the area. So far, no trace of the ship or passengers have been found.
A Japanese tourist boat with 24 passengers, including two minors, has disappeared after issuing a distress call.
Japanese naval authorities are trying to locate 26 people (plus passengers, the captain and one crew member) who were aboard the ship, which is said to have sank off the Shiretoko Peninsula, on the northern island of Hokkaido.
The ship’s crew, Kazu 1, called the Coast Guard at about 1:15 p.m. local time (5:15 a.m. in Lisbon), asking for help as the ship’s bow sank and sank, according to data provided by the television network. NHK Public.
After contact with the ship was lost, coastal authorities sent five patrol boats and two helicopters to the area.
The Japanese TV channel NHK broadcast live from a helicopter pictures of the searches that took place until nightfall, but so far no trace of the ship or the passengers have been found, which, according to the latest communications, were wearing lifejackets. .
According to the company that operates the 65-person boat, Kazu 1 was scheduled to leave the port of Otorohigashi, in the city of Shari, at 10:00 a.m. and sail across Cape Shiretoko, where she does sightseeing. , then back around one o’clock.
Members of the Otoro fishing cooperative told NHK that the waters were rough this morning in the area and the boats that went out to fish collected their nets and returned to the port at noon.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a warning today of raging waves and strong waves of up to three or four meters in waters off eastern Hokkaido, where the Shiretoko Peninsula is located.
