A woman was swept away while swimming off a Japanese coast and rescued about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from shore, 36 hours after going missing, authorities said.
The 21-year-old Chinese man was holding on to a rubber swim ring while swimming with friends at Shirahama Ohama beach around 7:30 p.m. on Monday, the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement on Thursday.
Authorities launched a search and rescue operation after a friend raised the alarm on a coast in central Shizuoka prefecture that evening.
“The woman’s friend reported her missing to a nearby convenience store, and the information was received at around 7:55 p.m. on July 8,” a local Coast Guard official said.
The woman, whose name has not been released, told rescuers she was swept out to sea because she was swimming with a rubber ring and was unable to return to shore.
Officials said the vessel was discovered by a cargo ship at 7:48 a.m. Wednesday adrift off the southern tip of Chiba Prefecture’s Boso Peninsula.
Two crew members from a nearby small tanker received a radio call and jumped into the water to try to rescue the man.
“The straight line distance is 80km. [between the beach and rescue spot] “… but it is estimated to have drifted a greater distance,” the official said.
After being rescued, the woman was taken to the hospital, but she was conscious and her symptoms of dehydration were not life-threatening, so she did not require hospitalization.
