Swimmer rescued 80km off Japan, 36 hours after being swept out to sea
Handout photo courtesy of Japan Coast Guard Yokosuka Office/AFP/Getty Images.
A 21-year-old woman has been rescued after being swept out to sea in a rubber ring while swimming in Japan. Officials say the woman was found approximately 80km off the coast, 36 hours after she went missing.
The young Chinese national, who was floating with the aid of a rubber ring, had been swimming with a friend at Shirahama Ohama beach around 7.30pm local time on Monday (8 July 2024), the coast guard reports.
Her friend raised the alarm when she realised she was missing. A search and rescue mission was initiated at the beach, in the central Shizuoka region.
“It was around 7.55pm on 8 July when we received the information after the woman’s friend reported to a nearby convenience store that she was missing,” a local Japan Coast Guard official said.
The woman was found drifting off the southern tip of Chiba’s Boso peninsula by a cargo ship at 7:48am on Wednesday, according to the official.
Two crew members from a nearby tanker were contacted via radio, and jumped into the water to rescue her.
“There are 80km in a straight line [between the beach and rescue spot] … but it is assumed she drifted for an even greater distance,” the official says.
The woman, who has not been named, told her rescuers that she had been carried out to sea and was unable to swim back to the shore due to the rubber ring.
After being rescued, the woman was taken to the hospital but did not require admission, as she was alert and her dehydration was not severe.
