Five Mauritanians are missing following a spectacular collision Friday off the coast of Mauritania between two fishing boats, while some twenty people could not be rescued including three Spaniards, the Spanish maritime rescue service said Saturday. “The Mauritanian authorities have informed us today (Saturday) that yesterday (Friday), there was a collision between two ships”, the “Right Whale” and the “Tafra 3”, a spokesman for the Spanish maritime rescue service, interviewed by AFP, reported. The Mauritanian authorities “have indicated that the second vessel has sunk, that its crew numbered 26 persons, and that 21 had been rescued”, according to the same source. “There are five people of Mauritanian nationality who have disappeared; three Spanish citizens have been rescued”, the spokesman added. In a communiqué, the regional government of Galicia (north-west Spain) confirmed that the “Tafra 3” had sunk off Mauritania. “Currently, five persons are missing, of Mauritanian nationality; the rest of the crew, including three Spaniards (two captains and a machinist), were able to reach the mainland”, states the communiqué of the regional government of Galicia, which says it “hopes” that the five missing will be found.
Five Mauritanians missing after a collision of boats off the coast of Mauritania
