VLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2023) Four crew members of Russia's Kaltan fishing boat that caught fire off South Korea's southeastern coastal city of Ulsan early on Friday remained on board and are still being searched for, a spokesperson of the Far Eastern expeditionary emergency response team of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery told Sputnik.
"Twenty-one crew members moved to life rafts and from them to (South) Korean rescue vessels. Four people � the chief mate (captain) and three others � remained on board; the search for them is underway; there are complications due to the fire," the spokesman said.
Earlier on Friday, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing the country's Coast Guard, that a Russian fishing boat with 25 crew members aboard, all Russians, and carrying some 100 tonnes of seafood in waters off Ulsan, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Seoul, caught fire while sailing back to Russia. The Coast Guard sent rescue ships after receiving a distress call and saved 21 crew members, 19 of them were unharmed, and 2 sustained minor injuries. Four crew members went missing, the report said.
A spokesperson for the Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office told Sputnik that the fishing boat's name was Kaltan, and it was from the city of Vladivostok.
