The search for a fishing ship reported missing in the Baltic Sea since December 11 has been dropped, Itar-Tass reports. The fate of four out of six crewmen is unknown.
Deputy Chief of the Kaliningrad Coordination Center for Rescue at Sea Anatoly Lemeshchenko told Tass that the search operation at sea was dropped, taking into account that the ship had been missing for four days and water temperatures were no higher than eight degrees above zero, which left no hope to find survivors and made further search efforts useless. The weather forecast for the next few days is unfavorable, Lemeshchenko said.
The bodies of two crewmen from the missing ship were identified on Thursday. Lithuanian helicopter crews spotted the bodies on a life raft twelve miles off the Russian state border. Both bodies were identified by photographs.