(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-13 03:05

HOTAN, Xinjiang -- Chinese rescuers said they have found canoes and clothes confirmed to be abandoned by six Russians who were reportedly missing since September 2 when canoeing on a river in northwestern Xinjiang region.

The red canoes, clothing and iron bars used for fixing canoes were found around 3:44 p.m. Wednesday in two separate sites of the riverway of the upper Yurungkax River in a third search mission by a Chinese rescue helicopter.

The crew of the Chinese helicopter took photos of the abandoned articles, according to the Hotan rescue headquarters.

A local villager who had served as the guide of the missing Russians identified these articles as theirs after he saw the photos, the headquarters said.

The Hotan headquarters and Russian rescuers are working Wednesday night on a new plan to search the surrounding areas, according to the headquarters

The six Russian tourists failed to show up to meet their Chinese interpreter in Hotan as scheduled on September 2 after they began canoeing on the Yurungkax River in mid-August.

A Russian cargo-transport plane with 40 Russian search and rescue crew arrived in Hotan on Tuesday to join the search for the six Russian tourists.

A member of the Russian rescue crew said the missing Russians were "experienced canoeists" and he believed they went missing probably because they met with "technical problems".

The six 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.

Prior to the findings, around 1,100 Chinese armed police, herdsmen and farmers had been mobilized to search for them along the middle and lower reaches of the river, but they found no trace of them.