10 dead, 11 missing as Spanish trawler from Galicia sinks off Canada's east coast

UPDATED at 11h on Weds 16 Feb.

The death toll has risen to at least 10, with 11 of the crew still missing, after the Spanish vessel sank off Canada’s east coast.

Original full report below:

A Spanish fishing vessel, the ‘Villa de Pitanxo’, sank approximately 250 miles off Canada’s east coast during Monday night, killing ‘several’ of the 24 crew members on board, a Spanish coastguard spokeswoman has said.

Rescuers saved three crew members from the 50-metre long Galician trawler, and were continuing to search for survivors in the area off Newfoundland and Labrador on Canada’s Atlantic coast where the ship sank, she added.

According to Spanish media reports, 12 crew members are Spanish nationals, eight are from Peru and the rest are from Ghana.

‘We have been informed that … bodies have been found,’ Maica Larriba, the central government representative in Pontevedra in the region of Galicia where the trawler is based, told public radio.

The three survivors were found in a lifeboat suffering from hypothermia, she added. ‘The temperature of the water at the moment is horrible, it is very low,’ Larriba said.

Rescuers found two other lifeboats empty and were looking for a fourth.

The Spanish government is ‘following with concern’ the rescue operation, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting.

‘I can confirm that three members of the crew have been rescued,’ she added.

The fishing vessel, a freezer trawler registered in 2004, was based in the port of Marín in Galicia.

Desplegado un dispositivo marítimo y aéreo para rescatar a los 24 tripulantes del pesquero Villa de Pitanxo que ha naufragado a unos 450 kilómetros al ESE de Terranova. Se trata de un pesquero de 50 metros de eslora con puerto base en Marín (Pontevedra). pic.twitter.com/YnGSqlmVXz
— SALVAMENTO MARÍTIMO (@salvamentogob) February 15, 2022