Russia says it has found the missing Arctic Sea and rescued its crew. The ship was found early on Monday, 300 nautical miles off the Cape Verde Islands.
The
BBC reported that the 15-member Russian crew had been taken aboard a Russian ship. The Russian Defence Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, said the crew were well. He said:
The crew have been transferred to another ship. They are being interrogated now in order to find out what happened
The Finnish-owned Arctic Sea went missing after passing through the English Channel last month. The vessel, carrying a $1.3-million cargo of timber, was scheduled to have docked on August 4 in the Algerian port of Bejaia
The BBC said the crew reported they had been boarded by up to 10 armed men as the ship sailed through the Baltic Sea on July 24, but the men left the ship using an inflatable boat after 12 hours.
A joint Russian-NATO effort has been under way to find the ship. It was not clear from the report whether the Russian vessel referred to was a naval ship.