Five fishermen rescued as vessel sinks

FIVE fishermen from the northeast had a lucky escape on Sunday afternoon when the whitefish trawler Beryl started taking in water and sank, 25 miles north of Shetland.

Shetland Coastguard was alerted to the emergency at 2.30pm and immediately tasked the search and rescue helicopter to fly pumps to the scene, north of Muckle Flugga.

At the time a second fishing vessel, the Buckie registered Onward, went alongside the stricken vessel to help pumping out water but the intake was already too severe.

Four crew were then taken onboard the Onward while the skipper stayed on the Beryl.

When the helicopter arrived at the scene, the vessel was already heavily listing, which made it too dangerous to lower any further pumps on board.

The skipper abandoned ship, was picked up by the crew of the Onward, and the Beryl sank at around 4.15pm.

The Onward is now heading back to the northeast of Scotland.