At least one person has been killed after the crew of a stricken fishing vessel were forced to abandon ship in the South Atlantic Ocean, Spain’s foreign minister has said.
The crew of the Argos Georgia fled the ship when it started taking on water at about 16:00 local time on Monday – about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands.
Some 27 people were left stranded in life rafts after initial attempts to rescue the crew failed due to bad weather, a spokesperson for the Falkland Islands government said.
In Madrid, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish TV that two others are believed to have died, as well as the one confirmed death.
Those on board include nationals of Spain, Uruguay, Peru, Russia and Indonesia, he said.
The Falkland Islands – a British overseas territory – has been coordinating the search operation and confirmed a number of crew members have been rescued. They added that they will be taken to hospital in Stanley for assessment.
But a statement from the Falklands government did not confirm any deaths and said the search will continue through the night.
An earlier attempt on Monday to rescue the crew using a military helicopter was prevented by “extremely challenging weather conditions”, including gale-force winds and waves reported to be eight metres high.
Officials had said the weather ruled out use of the helicopter and it will review when it can make another attempt to rescue the crew.
Ten crew members, including the ship’s captain, were from Spain, an official in north-west region of Galicia told the EFE news agency. Mr Albares said two of the Spanish nationals were scientific observers.
The Argos Georgia had left Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on Sunday night heading for fishing grounds, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic.
A British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) Atlas aircraft was able to track and report the position of the life rafts.
The aircraft and an additional Voyager plane have maintained a watch on the rafts overnight, officials in the Falkland Islands said in a statement.
The patrol vessel (FPV) Lilibet and two fishing vessels have also made their way to the location, with the first ship arriving on scene and starting search operations.
The BFSAI search and rescue helicopter, which attempted to recover the crew, had to return to Stanley Airport to re-fuel. The weather subsequently worsened and the helicopter search operation was suspended.
Argos Froyanes, the fishing company which owns the 2018-built longliner, declined to comment when asked by BBC News about their crew and the search operation.