The crew of a damaged fishing vessel was forced to abandon ship in the South Atlantic, leaving at least one person dead, Spain’s foreign minister said.
The Argos Georgia began taking on water at around 16:00 local time on Monday, about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands, and the crew fled the ship.
A spokesman for the Falkland Islands government said initial attempts to rescue the crew failed due to bad weather and about 27 people were trapped in life rafts.
In Madrid, Foreign Minister José Manuel Alvarez told Spanish television that two other people were believed to have died, with one confirmed dead.
He said those on board included nationals of Spain, Uruguay, Peru, Russia and Indonesia.
The British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands has been coordinating the search operation and confirmed that some crew members had been rescued. They added that they would be taken to hospital in Stanley for evaluation.
But a statement from the Falkland Islands government did not confirm any deaths and said the search would continue throughout the night.
Earlier on Monday, attempts to use military helicopters to rescue the crew were hampered by “extremely adverse weather conditions”, including winds and waves reportedly up to eight meters high.
Officials said the helicopter was unavailable due to weather conditions and would consider when to try again to rescue the crew.
An official in the northwestern region of Galicia told the Efe news agency that ten crew members, including the captain, were from Spain. Mr Alvarez said two of the Spanish nationals were scientific observers.
According to ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the “Argos Georgia” left Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on Sunday night for fishing grounds.
British Force South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) Atlas aircraft were able to track and report the life raft’s position.
The aircraft and another Voyager aircraft monitored the raft throughout the night, Falkland Islands officials said in a statement.
The patrol vessel (FPV) Lilibet and two fishing boats have also arrived at the site, with the first vessel arriving at the scene and starting search operations.
The BFSAI search and rescue helicopter attempting to rescue the crew had to return to Stanley Airport to refuel. Then the weather deteriorated and helicopter search operations were suspended.
Argos Froyanes, the fishing company that owns the 2018-built longline vessel, declined to comment when asked by BBC News about its crew and search operations.
