Six Dead in Ship Fire at Japanese Port

Photo: View of Wakkanai Harbor

Six bodies were discovered aboard a cargo ship that caught fire on Thursday while anchored in a Japanese port.

Cambodian-registered freighter, TAIGAN, went up in flames after being in northern Japan’s port of Wakkanai since Tuesday.

A total of 23 Russian and Ukrainian crewmembers were on the ship at the time of the blaze. Six Russians are still unaccounted for. A Japanese Coast Guard representative stated that they have found six bodies in the ship and are now identifying them. Local reports said the six victims were the missing Russian crew members. Two other crewmembers were hospitalized for burns, but neither was in critical condition.

The fire was extinguished by early Thursday afternoon (local time), after 11 hours of firefighting.

The vessel had been used to transport crabs from a Sakhalin port. About two-thirds of the cargo ship’s interior had been burned; no details were released about what may have caused the fire.