Madrid:

A Spanish fishing boat sank off the east coast of Canada overnight Monday, killing “several” of the 22 crew on board, a Spanish coast guard spokeswoman said.

Rescuers rescued three crew members and were continuing to search for survivors in the area off Newfoundland on Canada’s Atlantic coast where the ship sank, she added.

Twelve crew members are Spanish nationals, eight from Peru and the rest from Ghana, according to Spanish media.

“We have been informed that (…) bodies have been found,” Maica Larriba, a central government representative in Pontevedra, in the northwestern 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 water temperature right now is horrible, it’s very low,” Larriba said.

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

The Spanish government is “following with concern” the rescue operation, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez told a press conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.

“I can confirm that three crew members were rescued,” she added.

The fishing vessel, a freezer trawler registered in 2004, was based in the port of Marin in Galicia and is owned by shipowner Manuel Nores.

The company, founded in 1950, has eight freezer trawlers and some 300 employees, according to its website.

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