Three sailors dead after cargo ship collides with fishing vessel off Vigo coast

Three sailors were killed and two are still missing after a cargo ship collided with a small fishing vessel in the early hours of Tuesday morning off the coast of Vigo, south of the Cíes islands, in northwest Spain. A further five crew members from the Mar de Marín were rescued, according to sources from the Spanish coastguard.

At around 3am, a phone call to the emergency services raised the alert about the accident, which saw the Mar de Marín quickly sink. According to a number of radio stations in the area, the three dead men are from Cangas, Barro and Marín (all towns in Pontevedra), while those missing are from Ghana and Morocco. The bodies that have been recovered have already been transferred to the port at Vigo.

Helicopters, Civil Guard vessels and local fishing boats are all taking part in the search for the missing fishermen, with the Vigo coastguard coordinating the efforts.

The cargo ship that collided with the Mar de Marín is the Baltic Breeze, which was carrying vehicles that had been loaded in the port of Vigo from the nearby Citroën factory located there. The vessel carries a Singapore flag and is 164 meters long, compared to the 27-meter fishing boat.

According to the head of the Vigo fisherman’s association, Julio Alonso, the vessel sank “in three minutes” after the impact.