Rescuers discovered a life raft from Russia's Alexei Kulakovsky tugboat, which sank on early Friday morning in the Laptev Sea some 20 nautical miles from the shore, Russia's Far East emergencies ministry said.
The vessel with 14 crewmembers on board sent a distress call at 4:40 a.m. local time and a nearby tanker rushed to the tugboat saving three crewmembers, who are the captain and two sailors.
"A life raft was discovered from a helicopter at about noon local time [1:00 GMT]. There were no people in the life raft," the ministry's press service said.
Rescuers from the emergencies ministry department in Russia's Far East are currently searching for 11 missing sailors. The rescue operation involves two Mi-8 helicopters carrying rescuers and doctors.
The Kapitan Babichev tugboat and the Nikolai Yevgenov survey vessel are on their way to the scene of the incident to take part in the rescue operation and are soon expected to be there.
VLADIVOSTOK, August 27 (RIA Novosti)
