Japanese authorities fear that a tourist boat, with 26 people on board, was shipwrecked near the island of Hokkaido.
A tourist boat with 26 people on board was still wanted by the coast guard in northern Japan on Saturday evening, after having alerted several hours earlier that it was sinking, according to local media.
The “Kazu 1” was sailing in cold and choppy waters not far from the island of Hokkaido (northern Japan) when it sent out a distress call around 1:15 p.m. local time (4:15 GMT), according to the Japanese public television channel NHK. .
Contact was subsequently lost with the boat, and help did not arrive in the area until several hours later.
A coast guard official confirmed to AFP on Saturday that a rescue operation was being carried out, but without giving further details.
The boat and its occupants – 24 passengers including two children, as well as two crew members according to media reports – had still not been located as of 9:30 p.m. Japanese time (12:30 GMT), and the search was continuing despite the darkness.
High waves and strong wind
The crew and passengers were provided with life jackets according to NHK, but the temperatures are very cold in the region, around zero degrees Celsius at night currently.
In addition, fishing boats in the area had returned to port before Saturday noon due to high waves and strong winds, according to a local fishing cooperative quoted by the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
The Kazu 1 was sailing near the Shiretoko Peninsula, a remote natural site in northeast Hokkaido, listed since 2005 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its remarkable terrestrial and marine ecosystems.