(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-15 03:18

HOTAN, XINJIANG -- An eight-member joint team of Chinese and Russian rescuers will be airdropped into the search area on Saturday to hunt for six Russian canoeists missing in northwest China's Xinjiang since Sep. 2.

The photo taken from a rescuing helicopter on September 12 shows the canoes abandoned by Russian tourists who were missing in northwest China's Xinjiang since September 2, 2007. [Xinhua]

The team of five Russians and three Chinese will join eight Chinese rescuers parachuted in on Friday morning, according to the latest rescue plan.

The tourists failed to meet their Chinese interpreter in Hotan in southern Xinjiang as planned on September 2 after they began a canoeing trip on the Yurungkax River in mid-August.

The eight Chinese rescuers landed near the site of the upper reaches of the river where clothes, irons bars used to fix canoes and three red canoes confirmed to be abandoned by the missing Russians, were found Wednesday by a Chinese rescue helicopter.

They had arrived at the northern bank of the river, but strong currents stopped them crossing the 50-meter-wide river, which is up to 2.5 meters deep, to the southern bank where the abandoned possessions were found.

The eight Chinese rescuers will cross the river Saturday together with the joint rescue team who brought supplies of food and medicine for four days and satellite phones, tents and canoes, according to the rescue headquarters.

The Chinese helicopter had searched the mountainous areas near the abandoned items, but found no trace of the canoeists, the headquarters said.

The missing Russians were identified as Vladimir Smetannikov, Sergey Chernik, Andrey Pautov, Dmitry Tishchenko, Ivan Chernik and Alexander Zverev, with the youngest aged 25 and the oldest 47.