A Japanese national on cruise aboard the luxury line MV Ocean Dream who was brought ashore here late on Sunday night and admitted to a private medical college hospital following a heart attack died shortly after midnight. He was identified as Yachiro Kimura, 66.
The body is being kept at the hospital mortuary and will be handed over to his son, who is due to arrive from Kolkata on Tuesday. The body will then be flown to Japan from Kochi.
Kimura, who was part of a tourist group en route to Cyprus from Singapore, suffered a heart attack when the ship was just off the Kollam coast. The crew contacted the Neendakara Coastal police station, following which a speed boat was despatched.
The ship anchored 8 nautical miles off the coast and Kimura, along with a nurse from the ship, was brought to the Kollam port from where he was rushed to the hospital. The ship which later anchored at the Kochi port resumed its cruise late on Monday.
