Bodies of missing fishermen whose boat sank in North Sea found next to vessel

Three others found alive after four hours adrift in life raft

The bodies of two missing fishermen whose boat sank in the North Sea on Saturday have been discovered, the coastguard has said.

A crew of five foreign nationals were initially unaccounted for after their vessel went down some 25 miles north east of Great Yarmouth.

Three of them were rescued after drifting for four hours in a life raft. A cruise ship spotted their emergency flare and went to their aid.

Passengers look on as the three rescued fishermen make their way on to the cruise ship (PA)

But helicopter crews spotted the bodies of the two other fishermen near the wreckage of their sunken boat on Sunday. They were airlifted to Humberside airport.

Aimee Rampton, coastguard operations controller, said: “The helicopter located the bodies of the missing crew near the sunken fishing vessel wreckage.

“All units have now stood down. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the crew men.”

It was a bitter conclusion after the initial rescue of the three crewmen had brought cheers from the cruise ship’s passengers.

“But we didn’t know until a while later, when the captain announced that there was actually two more and we were sill searching for them,” said Teena Dowd, a Canadian tourist on board.

Formal identification of the two bodies is yet to take place. No details of either them or the survivors has been released.

Humberside Police said it was trying to contact the families of the men.

Additional reporting by Press Association