Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain).- A ship is sailing towards the Dominican Republic with three people rescued from a boat adrift three days after leaving the Spanish Canary Islands (Atlantic).
According to a statement issued to EFE by the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service on Sunday, the Chinese-flagged Xin An Ning ship is continuing its route to the Dominican port of Río Haina, near Santo Domingo, with the three rescued people.
Last night, local time, the Maritime Rescue Service coordinated the rescue of these three people who were adrift in a rubber boat some 600 kilometres from the Spanish island of El Hierro, from which they had left three days earlier with the intention of fishing.
This state entity received an alert from a friend of those on board the boat and a few minutes later the maritime controllers managed to contact the inflatable boat by satellite telephone.
They explained that they had not been able to call for help because the SOS button on their phones was not working, and that they also had no credit, although they had a battery and the possibility of recharging it, according to this source.
After providing its position, almost 600 kilometres southwest of El Hierro, Maritime Rescue searched for ships in the area to come to the rescue and finally the Xin An Ning, bound for the Dominican Republic, deviated towards the inflatable boat.
At 09:04 local time (07:04 GMT), the ship reported that it had rescued the three people in good health and was continuing its journey to the Dominican Republic with them.
