A woman swept away while swimming on a Japanese beach has been rescued about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the coast after missing for 36 hours, officials said.
The coast guard said Thursday that the 21-year-old Chinese national was swimming with a friend at Shirahama-Ohama Beach around 7:30 pm on Monday, buoyed by a rubber band.
Authorities launched a search and rescue operation that night after her friend raised the alarm at a beach in the central Shizuoka area.
A local Japanese coast guard official said: “At around 7:55 pm on July 8, the woman’s friends reported her missing to a nearby convenience store and we received the news.”
The woman, who asked not to be named, told rescuers she was swept out to sea and unable to return to the beach because she was swimming with a rubber band.
A cargo ship finally spotted her floating off the southern tip of the Chiba Boso Peninsula at 7:48 a.m. Wednesday, the official said.
Two crew members from a nearby small tanker contacted by radio and jumped into the sea to rescue her.
“The straight line is 80 kilometers [between the beach and rescue spot] … But it is speculated that she drifted a greater distance,” the official said.
The woman was rescued and taken to hospital, but did not need to be admitted as she was conscious and her dehydration was not life-threatening.
