S Korean ship sinks

N ZEALAND: Twenty-two fishermen were presumed dead after their South Korean trawler sank suddenly off Antarctica Monday, giving them no chance to don protection from the icy waters, rescuers said.

Maritime New Zealand said another trawler plucked 20 crew members from the sea shortly after the Number One Insung sank but the rest of the 42-strong crew could only survive 10 minutes without proper immersion suits.

Five crew members died immediately when the boat went down about 6:30am (1730 Sunday GMT), some 1,000 nautical miles north of the McMurdo Antarctic base and rescuers initially hoped some of the 17 missing had reached a lifeboat.

Maritime New Zealand coordinated desperate efforts by five trawlers in the area to find the missing men but admitted defeat late Monday that there was no chance they were alive.

"It (is) becoming increasingly unlikely further survivors (will) be found," rescue controller Dave Wilson said.

Maritime NZ spokesman Ross Henderson said the boat appeared to have gone down in calm conditions and did not send an SOS "We had no distress signal. At this stage we don't know what caused the vessel to sink," he told AFP.

Wellington, Monday, AFP