Cargo ship with 11 crew goes missing in Russia's Far East

A cargo ship with 11 crew on board went missing today in Russia's Far East in stormy conditions that were making rescue operations difficult, an emergency ministry spokeswoman said.

The "Amurskoye" was travelling to the Shantar Islands in the icy Okhotsk Sea, which lies east of Russia's Khabarovsk region and north of Japan's Hokkaido island.

The Khabarovsk emergency ministry department received a signal for help at around 2:50 pm , Yelena Yeremenko, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told AFP.

The dry cargo ship had 11 crew members on board. "Right now the weather conditions are bad, and small boats cannot work in the area," she said.

A tanker was searching for the boat, but visibility was too poor for helicopters, she added.
Life News website said the ship was carrying ore.

The Okhotsk Sea is extremely cold during the winter months. Last December only 14 people were rescued out of a total of 67 workers on an oil platform which capsized during a storm, with the rest found dead from exposure or missing