Three ships heading to flooded Russian ship in Pacific

Three foreign vessels are nearing a disabled Russian ship following its distress signal from the Sea of Japan saying that water had flooded one of its holds earlier Monday, a Russian rescuer said.

The 18-member crew of the Sinegorye, sailing around 80 nautical miles off South Korea’s east coast, sent out an SOS at 1:40 p.m. local time (6:40 a.m. Moscow time/2.40 a.m. GMT), before communications were lost, a spokesman for the regional rescue center in Russia’s Pacific city of Vladivostok said.