Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, Port, Transport

The ministry's press secretary Ivars Lasis told LETA that the Latvian Embassy in Moscow has contacted the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry in the Sakhalin region, and received official confirmation that the trawler had three Latvian citizens on board.

It is said that two of them are alive, Lasis told LETA.

He added that the Foreign Ministry will maintain contact with the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry until all circumstances are clarified.

At least 54 people lost their lives on Thursday as the "Dalniy Vostok" sank in the Sea of Okhotsk, near the Kamchatka peninsula, officials of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry announced.

Among the crew were citizens of Russia, Latvia, and other countries, the Russian media report.

The vessel sank at about 6:15 a.m. (local time). The "Dalniy Vostok" had 132 people on board – 78 Russian citizens and 54 foreigners.

Initial information indicates that the vessel sank following a collision with drifting ice.

According preliminary data obtained by Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, there were no Lithuanians in the Russian trawler that sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk.

"I was informed by my advisor on foreign affairs this morning that according to preliminary information, although this is not a final confirmation, there were no Lithuanians in the ship," the PM said on the radio Ziniu Radijas this morning.

Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also does not have any official information about citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who could have perished in the disaster.

On Wednesday night, a Russian fishing trawler sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk, killing at least 54 crew members. Russia's TASS reports on Thursday that 63 persons have been rescued, 15 are still missing.

According to Reuter's sources, the trawler was carrying 78 Russian nationals, as well as 54 foreigners from Myanmar, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Vanuatu. Other sources, meanwhile, report about Latvians among the crew members.