54 dead, 15 missing after trawler sinks off Kamchatka Peninsula

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VLADIVOSTOK: The death toll from a fishing freezer trawler that sank off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula Thursday morning has reached 54, Xinhua news agency reports citing local media.

Artur Rets, head of rescue centre at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky port, said 63 people had been rescued and 15 remained missing, said Russia Today.

The trawler had 132 crew on board when it sank in the Sea of Okhotsk at 6:15 a.m. local time on Thursday.

The crew members consisted of 78 Russian nationals and the rest from Myanmar, Lithuania, Ukraine and Vanuatu.

Twenty-six vessels are taking part in rescue efforts.

Preliminary investigation showed drifting ice may have torn a hole in the vessel which led to its sinking. –BERNAMA