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Japanese Coast Guard (icon image)
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/ REUTERS
Rescue workers speak of a “miracle”: off Japan, the coast guard rescued a 69-year-old man from distress who had clung to his damaged boat for 22 hours in rough seas.
According to the coast guard, the man was alone on the way to the holiday island of Yakushima on Saturday when his boat capsized off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture.
After the accident, the man alerted an acquaintance ashore.
The rescue workers did not find him until 22 hours later on Sunday.
Wrapped in plastic
When the rescuers discovered him, he was sitting on the engine of his overturned boat and holding onto part of the propeller.
"He was alone in the sea 22 hours," said a coast guard employee of the AFP news agency.
"I'm amazed at its survivability."
The man had therefore wrapped himself in a plastic sheet so as not to cool down.
Nevertheless, it was "a miracle that he survived," said a representative of the coast guard of the newspaper "Asahi Shimbun".
ptz / AFP
