Dutch coastguard officials have called off their search for three missing sailors after a vessel patrolling an oil drilling vessel off the Dutch coast collided with a fishing trawler and sank.
Two of the five crew from the Maria vessel, which was working on Wintershall’s Helm field, were rescued by coastguards, but three more are unaccounted for.
Coastguard officials said this afternoon they had stopped the above-water search for the crew, although Naval divers were searching the sunken ship for bodies.
The accident happened around 40km south of the Dutch port of Den Helder, when the 32m craft collided with the Texel 68 fishing trawler. The cause of the accident remained unknown, the coastguard said.