Russians saved after three months

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Rescuers have saved 11 people who were shipwrecked nearly three months ago in the remote Russian Far East, Russian media reports say.

They had survived by eating fish they had caught, food they had on board, and flour they found in an old army base.

But with supplies running low, five set out on foot to seek help. After four days' walk, they stumbled upon a group of soldiers, who sent for help.

All 11 are reported to be feeling well and not in need of medical help.

Their ordeal began when they set out in two vessels to catch fish on the Pacific coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, 6,700 km (4,200 miles) east of Moscow.

But on 10 October a storm wrecked their boats in a bay 100km from the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The boats' wreckage provided some basic shelter while they awaited rescue.

They burned furniture for warmth and made pancakes out of the flour they found at an abandoned military base.

Russian television showed one survivor saying: "There was nothing to eat except flour and water."

As food stocks began to run low, with no sign of rescue coming, they decided to divide into two and send one group for help.

The soldiers found by the five trekkers sent for helicopters, who evacuated the survivors to the local headquarters of the emergency ministry.