Hunt for fishermen lost on rough Irish Sea resumes

DUBLIN, Jan 12 (Reuters) Rescue services resumed their search today for seven fishermen after two Irish trawlers sank within hours of each other in stormy seas off Ireland's southeast coast.

Hopes faded the men from Ireland, Lithuania and Poland would be found alive after more than 24 hours lost at sea following the discovery of a third empty life raft and as coast guards pointed to sea temperatures of 10 centigrade.

''We are putting every effort into a rescue but as time goes by it becomes more unlikely that we will actually be rescuing crewmen,'' Irish Coast Guard spokeswoman Veronica Scanlan said.

''Unfortunately it looks more likely that we are searching for bodies.'' The hunt, which involved helicopters, a naval vessel, lifeboats and local trawlers, resumed at 1330 IST she said, adding that weather conditions were difficult, with gale force winds forecast to continue for the rest of the day.

A helicopter winched two Lithuanian fishermen to safety late yesterday after they had spent 20 hours in a life raft.

A local hospital, which named the men as Viktoz Losev and Vladimir Kostuv, kept them for overnight observation and described their condition as comfortable today.

British and Irish weather centres issued gale warnings for all coastal areas yesterday as winds on land gusted up to 130 km per hour. A cargo ship adrift in a rough North Sea narrowly avoided smashing into two gas platforms overnight.

Ireland's meteorological office has a gale warning in effect until 1139 IST tomorrow and expects strong to gale force winds to continue into the early hours of Sunday.

REUTERS SP HS1628