By IANS
Santiago de Compostela (Spain) : Five sailors are feared drowned while three others have been rescued after a fishing boat sank off Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia, EFE news agency reported Wednesday.
Spanish coastguards said they received an SOS call from a fishing boat early Tuesday from a point some 30 miles northwest of the city of La Coruna.
Three helicopters and two regional government ships were deployed to help the coastguard in the search for the missing fishermen, but they could only rescue three sailors.
One of the rescued sailors was hospitalised “with mild symptoms of hypothermia (loss of body temperature), but he is in good condition,” a hospital spokesman said.
According to ship’s master Antonio Argibay, the ship was equipped with all modern gadgets and high-tech instruments.
“The ship meets all the requirements to sail, but there is a storm at sea and, in the face of the wind and the waves, there is nothing that can be done. There are accidents that happen,” Argibay said.