Fishing Vessel Sinks Off Falkland Islands; Nine Dead, Four Missing

Nine people were confirmed dead and four were still missing after a British-Norwegian fishing vessel sank off the coast of the Falkland Islands on Monday, the boat's owner said on Wednesday.

A total of 27 crew members had been aboard the Argos Georgia, a Saint Helena-flagged vessel, of whom 14 have so far been found alive, Stig Ervik, CEO at Norway's Ervik Havfiske Holding, told Reuters.

Ervik said the fishing vessel had taken in water but that the company did not yet have full details of the course of events.

The crew consisted of 10 Spaniards, eight Russians, five Indonesians, two Peruvians and two Uruguayans, all of whom were between 30 and 58-years-old, he added.

Ervik declined to say which crew members had been confirmed dead.

Citing information from the Falkland Islands Coast Guard and the owner of the ship, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday that three Russian crew members were dead and one was missing.

One of the two life rafts available to the crew had been discovered in damaged condition, Ervik said, adding that one person had been found alive there while 13 survivors were found on the other raft.

The fishing vessel Argos Georgia was 200 nautical miles east of Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, when it sank, the British overseas territory's government said in a statement.

The government said rescued crew were taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Stanley for medical assessments while search operations continued for those missing.

(Reuters - Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik, Angus MacSwan and Sharon Singleton)