Tokyo. A Chinese woman who was swept away while swimming off a Japanese beach was rescued after 37 hours of floating 80 kilometers (50 miles) in the Pacific Ocean. officials said Thursday.
The Japanese coast guard began searching for the woman, identified only as a 20-year-old Chinese national, after receiving a call from a friend on Monday night who said she had gone missing while swimming in Shimoda, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) away. Southwest of Tokyo.
According to the Coast Guard, the woman was found on the southern tip of the Bozo Peninsula early Wednesday morning by a cargo ship, about 36 hours after she went missing.
The cargo ship requested assistance from the LNG carrier Kakuwa Maru No. 8, which was passing through the area. Two of its crew members jumped into the sea and rescued the woman, officials said. He was evacuated by a Coast Guard helicopter, they said.
The woman was mildly dehydrated but in good health and discharged on her own after being examined at a nearby hospital, officials said.
The Coast Guard said he went more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) and was lucky despite the dangers of heat stroke from the sun, hypothermia at night or ship strikes in the dark.
