Rescuers pulled at least four bodies from the icy waters of the North Sea but suspended a search for seven missing crew early on Thursday, saying their survival seemed unlikely after their ship sank following a collision in a busy shipping lane off the Dutch coast.
The Dutch coastguard and navy and other ships plucked 13 survivors from the water after the Baltic Ace, a 23,000 tonne car carrier, collided with container ship the Corvus J at about 7.15pm on Wednesday about 100 kilometres southwest of Rotterdam.
The Baltic Ace sank shortly afterwards, the coastguard said. The Corvus J was also damaged, but assisted in the search for missing crew, according to Dutch media reports.
“We have suspended the search until first light,” Coast Guard spokesman Peter Verburg said at 3am.
“The chances of finding them alive are slim,” he added, saying there was a chance that some of the crew may have gone down with the stricken vessel.
Another Coast Guard spokesman Marcel Oldenburger said earlier that 13 crew members who were all on board the 148 metre Bahamas-registered Baltic Ace had been rescued.
Four survivors were flown to a hospital in Rotterdam, seven taken by rescue helicopter to a hospital in Belgium and two were being treated on board a ship that found them, Oldenburger said.