56 dead, 13 missing after trawler sinks

At least 56 crew members aboard a Russian fishing trawler died and 13 were missing after the vessel sank in freezing waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the western Pacific Ocean early on Thursday, officials in the area said.

Sixty-three of the 132 people aboard the Dalniy Vostok were rescued from cold seas, near zero degrees C, said Viktor Klepikov, coordinating captain of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky maritime rescue center.

The massive trawler sank at about 4 am local time (1 am on Thursday, China time) in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula. It did not send a distress signal prior to the sinking.