The governor of Russia's Sakhalin Island has asked Japan to provide medical treatment for a 12-year-old boy who suffered burns to around 80 percent of his body in an explosion.
Gov. Alexander Khoroshavin made the request Thursday with the Japanese Consulate General in the provincial capital, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, officials in the Sakhalin government said.
The officials said the Russian and Japanese governments were making arrangements to transport Evgeny Podatnov to a hospital in Sapporo, possibly Saturday.
Podatnov was burned Oct. 24 when a compressed gas canister exploded in the southern part of Sakhalin Island. He was hospitalized in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.