China continues search for last missing Russian canoeist

URUMQI—More than 600 Chinese herdsmen and officials are continuing their search for the last missing Russian tourist who has disappeared for more than a month in northwest China in a canoeing trip.
The rescuers are focusing the search of Dmitry Tishchenko, one of the six-member Russian expedition, along the middle and lower reaches of the Yurungkax River in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region where two survivors were rescued on September 21.
A 40-member Russian rescue team, along with the two survivors and the bodies of three other tourists, left China for home a week ago, seeing no hope for the survival of Tishchenko.
China called off the 16-day official search and withdrew hundreds of soldiers and police officers on the same day after a meeting with the Russian counterpart, but searching by local residents has never stopped in the snow-pelted mountainous area despite the freezing weather.
The local government said it will contact Russia as soon as possible if any clues about the last missing tourist is discovered.
China mobilized three helicopters and 40,000 people to join the search operation since the six Russians failed to show up to meet their Chinese interpreter in Hotan city as scheduled on September 2 after they began rafting along the river in late August.
The two survivors and the three victims are: Alexander Zverev, Andrey Pautov, Sergey Chernik and Ivan Chernik, the father and son,and Vladimir Smetannikov. A 40-member Russian rescue team left China for Moscow on Thursday after a joint search with Chinese counterparts was abandoned for the last of six Russian tourists who participated in an ill-fated canoeing trip in northwest China.
They were accompanied by the two survivors of the expedition and the bodies of three other tourists, a Chinese rescuer said.
Survivors Alexander Zverev and Andrey Pautov had recovered and were in “very good” condition when they left the People’s Hospital of Hotan Prefecture in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said doctors.
“They were walking about freely when they were treated in the past days,” a doctor said.
The two expressed deep gratitude to the Chinese doctors and rescuers and offered to take photos with them before they departed.
Chinese and Russian search and rescue experts met in Hotan City on Wednesday evening, reaching an agreement to end the 16-day search for Dmitry Tishchenko, the last tourist remaining missing.
They said they had found no signs of more survivors in the area of the Yurungkax River, on which the canoeing expedition took place. Tishchenko would be officially registered as “missing” and the Chinese rescuers would continue land searches for him, they agreed.
China contributed three helicopters and 40,000 people to the search. Russia sent 40 rescuers to participate in the operation. The six Russian tourists failed to show up to meet their Chinese interpreter in Hotan as scheduled on Sept. 2 after they set out on the Yurungkax River in southern Xinjiang in mid-August.
The rescuers have found only two survivors and discovered the bodies of three men: Sergey Chernik, 47, and Ivan Chernik, 25, who were father and son, and Vladimir Smetannikov, 25.—Xinhua