The cause of the disappearance of a tour boat off Japan’s northern shore is being investigated, as search attempts to locate the vessel and its missing passengers escalated on Monday, with the confirmed death toll growing to 11.
The ‘Kazu I’ was on its way to Shiretoko Peninsula on the island of Hokkaido for a tourist excursion when it ran into problems. The boat had 24 guests on board, including two children, as well as two staff members. Only a few orange flotation devices carrying its name have been discovered adrift along the difficult coastline’s rocky area.
One of the victims is a child.
On Monday, the search was continued with the use of planes and patrol boats, with local fishing boats from the port of Utoro also being involved, according to the media.
On Sunday, officials from the Transport Ministry rushed to the scene to coordinate operations, and Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito also paid a visit, urging everyone to do everything necessary to figure out what went wrong and prevent it from happening again.
Hiroaki Okuma, a Japan Transport Safety Board investigator, told reporters that they were gathering information from severe weather to vessel conditions to figure out what caused the incident, as well as questioning workers at the ship operator.
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