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The wreck of a Belgian trawler missing for almost a week has been found in the English Channel and navy divers will start to search for bodies, a Dutch official said on Tuesday.
“The wreck was discovered overnight Monday almost in the same place where it disappeared from radar,” said Simone Mahn, spokeswoman for the northern Dutch fishing town of Urk, where two of the four fishermen lived.
The trawler was found using sonar, Mahn added.
Dutch navy divers aided by a robot submarine will on Wednesday start searching the wreck for two bodies still missing, Mahn said.
They are a 48-year-old Portuguese man and a 28-year-old Dutch fisherman from Urk, she added.
Belgian trawler “Z85 Morgenster” disappeared from radar last Wednesday while off the English coast near the southeastern town of Hastings.
An extensive international search-and-rescue operation was launched and two bodies, that of a Belgian sailor, 64 and a 45-year-old Dutchman from Urk, were found near the French fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Thursday.
Lieutenant Alexis Edme, French spokesman for the Channel and North Sea prefecture said it is believed the Z85 Morgenster sank after its net snagged the bottom of the Channel.