Three of the 18 sailors from the wrecked Russian dry cargo ship Sinegorye have been rescued in the Sea of Japan, the Vladivostok rescue center told Interfax. One has been found dead, RIA Novosti added.

“One of them was on a raft and the other two were pulled out from the water. An empty lifeboat was also found. The raft had been spotted by a South Korean ship,” the center said.

14 crewmembers remain missing. An international team is involved in the rescue effort, and a Be-200 amphibious plane flew to the disaster area from Khabarovsk. Bad weather hampered efforts to recover the vessel and its crew on Tuesday, a day after the vessel lost radio contact off South Korea’s coast, Reuters reported.

The 2,448-tonne Sinegorye, carrying timber, sent a mayday call on Monday at around noon about 70 miles off Ullung Island on the east coast, the South Korean coast guard said.

Two large patrol boats and a search aircraft were dispatched to the area but the vessels experienced difficulty reaching the area until well into the night, a coast guard official said by telephone.

“It is too early to talk about the fate of the crew members,” the official said from the coastal city of Donghae after daybreak. “Weather conditions remain extremely bad.”

The vessel is believed to have sunk, but the coast guard was not able to confirm it yet, the official said.

The vessel was sailing from Russia’s Far East to China when water rushed into its cargo compartment in high winds and tides, the coast guard said in a statement.
Torrential rain storms hit South Korea’s northeastern region on Monday.

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