Fears are growing for four fisherman whose trawler went missing in a gale in the Dover strait on Wednesday, after an empty life raft thought to belong to the boat was found on the French coast.
A search for the Belgian-registered trawler Z-85 resumed on Thursday after it was suspended overnight because of bad weather.
The Dutch coastguard reported that an empty life raft with a serial number matching the missing 40-metre trawler was found by French police south of Boulogne, on Thursday morning.
All four members of the boat’s crew are missing. They are two Dutchmen, including the captain, a Belgian and a Portuguese.
The last signal from the boat’s tracking system was recorded 15 nautical miles south-east of Hastings during conditions described as challenging, with high seas and gale force winds. No distress signal was issued.
“With no sightings, one does fear the worst,” Royal National Lifeboat Institution spokesman Tim Ash told the International Business Times.
A search involving lifeboats from Dover and Dungeness was suspended on Wednesday night because of the stormy conditions. But both lifeboats were relaunched on Thursday morning after a slight improvement in the weather and a decrease in the force of the winds. An RAF helicopter has also joined the search along with a French aircraft.
The Met Office issued a warning of severe gale-force nine winds in the Dover shipping area overnight, decreasing later on Thursday.
A Maritime and Coastguard Agency statement said: “A number of Belgian and Dutch fishing vessels remain on the scene in the area, looking out for any sign of their missing colleagues.
“The weather conditions on scene remain challenging.”
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