Sunk French fishing boat’rammed’ off UK, killing five

QUIMPER, France (AFP) – A French fishing boat that sank off the British coast last Thursday with the death of its five crew was rammed by a large vessel before it went down, the prosecutor looking into the accident said Monday.

The Bugaled Breizh sank off the Lizard Point in southwest England in an area where multinational naval exercises were being held, but prosecutor Roland Eisch said the positions of all the warships had been determined and they could not have been responsible.

He said the trawler appeared to have been rammed towards the bow by a very large ship travelling at a good speed. The collision was “very violent,” he said, citing photographic images captured on underwater cameras at the scene.

The Bugaled Breizh operated out of the Brittany port of Loctudy. The bodies of two of the crew have been found, but the three others remain missing.Eisch said he would open a judicial investigation.