-
- TOKYO (AFP) - A 100-metre-long
(330-foot) metallic structure with Russian writing on its sides was spotted
drifting off northern Japan Thursday, puzzling local coastguard officials.
-
- "I've never seen anything like it in all my life,"
said Keiichi Toyota, deputy head of the Kushiro coastguard station on Hokkaido
island.
-
- "It is huge but I can't even tell what it might
possibly be," he told AFP by telephone.
-
- The object was spotted and photographed by a Japanese
patrol boat some 80 kilometers (50 miles) off Cape Ochiishi on the Pacific
side of the island's eastern tip.
-
- "The structure is made of what looks like steel
and is a rusty color," Toyota said, adding it was about five meters
(16.5 feet) wide.
-
- Russian lettering could be seen on 13 spots on the object,
he said. One section could mean "Caution: Flammables."
-
- "Judging from the flow of sea currents, it could
have moved south from the Russian Far East," he said.
-
- Cape Ochiishi is near the Japan-claimed southern Kuril
islands, occupied by the Soviet Union and then Russia since the end of
World War II.
-
- "The regional coastguard command has enquired to
the Russian side about the object but we have yet to receive any information,"
he said, adding that commercial ships have been warned to watch out for
the object. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|