By Two people drowned and another was missing at sea after a fishing boat with 10 crew members on board sank abruptly off Spain’s northern coast, regional authorities said.
The seven other crew members were rescued on Monday from the Santander-based Vilaboa Uno, which went down at dawn six nautical miles from the Cantabrian coast after taking on water.
“There were 10 crew members on board. Seven were saved, one is missing and two are dead,” regional leader Miguel Angel Revilla said on Twitter.
One of the dead fishermen was Spanish and the other Ghanaian. The missing man was from Peru, said the government representative in Cantabria, Ainoa Quinones.
Three helicopters and numerous boats were scouring the seas for the missing man on Monday, according to maritime rescue authorities.
One of the rescued men was suffering from hypothermia, the head of the Santander marine rescue service, German Erostarbe, told public television TVE.
At least 10 people die after Spanish fishing boat sinks off Canada’s east coast pic.twitter.com/OGlmmY1AaX
Investigation
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences and government support to the families of the dead and missing men.
The Vilaboa Uno had sent out a distress signal at 04:10 am (0210 GMT) because “it was leaking and risked sinking”, he said.
The vessel went down so fast “the fishermen didn’t have time to get their lifeboat in the water” and other fishing boats who came to their rescue had to haul them out of the sea.
Erostarbe said it was not “normal” for a vessel like the Vilaboa Uno to sink so fast, especially as the weather had not been poor, and the Maritime Accidents Commission would launch an investigation.
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