After 67 days of being lost at sea, a man was found alive in a small boat next to the bodies of his brother and 15-year-old nephew.

A Russian man was rescued from the stormy Sea of ​​Okhotsk after surviving for more than two months in a small inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew died, officials said Tuesday.

The prosecutor’s office in eastern Russia said the man was rescued on Monday by a fishing vessel off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

It did not name the survivor, but Russian news reports identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who went on a whale-watching trip in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in early August with his 49-year-old and 15-year-old brother. -year-old nephew. Their bodies were reportedly found in the boat when the fishing vessel Angel rescued Pichugin.

Media reports say the three men went to the Shantar Islands off the northwest coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in early August. They went missing after leaving the road on their way back to Sakhalin Island in Aug. 9. An attempt was made to rescue them but they failed to find them.

Russian media reported that the three had a small ration of food and about 5.2 liters of water when their engine failed and they found themselves stranded.

Pichugin weighed 110 pounds when she was found, having lost half her body weight, news reports said.

He did not immediately say how he managed to survive in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia known for its storms, and how his brother and nephew died.

When the fishing vessel’s crew spotted the small inflatable boat on their radar, they first thought it was a buoy or a piece of debris, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said, but turned on the light to make sure and were shocked to see Pichugin. .

A video released by the prosecutor’s office shows a thin man wearing a jacket, smashing his nose and shouting “come here!” and the staff working to bring him back to safety.

“I have no strength left,” Pichugin said as he was taken to safety.

Alexei Arykov, the owner of the fishing boat that found the survivor said “he is in a critical condition, thin, but aware,” RIA Novosti reported.

The boat stopped at around 0830 GMT in the eastern city of Magadan and the survivor was taken away on a stretcher, media reported.

The survivor’s wife Yekaterina told RIA Novosti: “It’s a miracle,” adding that the men only took enough food and water to last two weeks.

An expert interviewed by RIA Novosti recalled that in 1960, four Soviet soldiers survived for 49 days on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean that was found by the US aircraft carrier Keersarge.

The prosecutors said that they have started an investigation into the incident with charges of violating security laws and leading to the death of people.

Last year, an Australian sailor said survived for more than two months he got lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics, leaving them stranded.

AFP contributed to this report.

Haley Ott contributed to this report.