Six more bodies of S. Korea trawler crew found in Bering Sea

Search and rescue teams on Wednesday recovered six more bodies from the area where a South Korean trawler sank in the Bering Sea, as hopes dimmed of finding any survivors among 46 crew still missing.

"They were all wearing lifejackets when they were found by rescue vessels," said a spokesman for the vessel's South Korean owner, Sajo Industries.

The bodies were recovered around nine miles southwest of the spot where the 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 trawler, with 60 people on board, went down in rough, icy seas on Monday.

A total of seven bodies have now been recovered and seven people were rescued, leaving 46 still unaccounted for.

A US coastguard plane has been helping the South Korean and Russian ships scouring the area, and a US vessel specialised in search and rescue operations was due to arrive early Thursday, a Seoul foreign ministry official said.

The discovery of four empty, damaged lifeboats on Tuesday fuelled concerns that the missing crew members were pitched into the freezing waters when the boat sank.

Those on board included 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians, 13 Philippine crew members and a Russian identified by Russian news agencies as a fisheries inspector.

The inspector was among those rescued.