MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The body of a third Russian rafter was found on Sunday on the bank of the Yurungkax River in China.
"The third body found has been airlifted to Huotang airfield," Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov told Interfax.
The bodies of the two rafters found earlier will also be moved to Huotang on Sunday, he said
Beltsov said three Chinese Mi-17 helicopters and 16 Russian rescuers from Tsentrospas rescue center, as well as Chinese military and volunteers are searching for the missing rafters on the ground and in the air from the start to the middle of the rafters' route, where their two craft were found.
Earlier reports said that a team of six Russian rafters was to go on a rafting trip down the Yurunkax River in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region on August 22, but failed to appear in the agreed meeting place on September 2.
The team had been led to the starting point of the trip by local guides.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported on September 12 that two twin-hull boats that presumably belonged to the rafters had been found.
At the request of the Russian embassy Chinese authorities drew over 1,000 people to the search.