Rescue helicopters have found seven of the 26 people from a missing tour boat in the frigid waters of northern Japan.
But the Japanese Coast Guard could not confirm if any of the people were alive.
Rescuers found four people near the tip of Shiretoko Peninsula earlier on Sunday and then three more people in the same area a few hours later. NHK public television said they were unconscious.
The coast guard said all seven people were found in the same area near where the boat sent a distress call on Saturday. The location is known as a difficult place to manoeuvre boats because of its rocky coastline. The same tour boat had an accident there last year.
Footage on NHK showed one of the rescued people arriving on a helicopter and being transferred to an ambulance on a stretcher, while rescuers held up blue plastic shields for privacy.
The boat carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members had gone missing after sending a distress call, saying it took on water and was beginning to sink.
Sunday’s rescue came after nearly 19 hours of intense search involving six patrol boats, several aircraft and divers. The coast guard said the search continued through the night.
The 19-tonne Kazu 1 made an emergency call in the early afternoon of Saturday, saying the ship’s bow had flooded and it was beginning to sink and tilt while travelling off the western coast of Shiretoko Peninsula on the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said.
A tour boat crew belonging to another operator told NHK that he warned of rough seas when he spotted the Kazu 1 crew and told them not to go. He said the same boat went aground last year and suffered a crack on its bow.
The coast guard confirmed the same boat went aground in the area last June, though nobody was injured in that accident.
