Rescue workers suspended their search for four seamen who went missing and are presumed drowned after their trawler sank in heavy seas early Monday off the French Atlantic coast, French radio reported, according to dpa. The bodies of two other members of the seven-man crew of the 24- metre La Petite Julie were found earlier in the day in waters some 50 kilometres off the Brittany coast. Another member of the crew, a Portuguese national, was plucked from the sea and and hospitalized suffering from shock and severe hypothermia. Unless the missing seamen were able to climb aboard some kind of raft, the chances were very slim that they would have survived long exposure in waters of temperatures below 10 degrees centigrade, a spokeswoman for the coast guard said according to DPA. Three empty lifeboats were found during the day, but bad weather accompanied by high waves hampered the search. The search began shortly before 5 am (0400 GMT), after the coast guard received a brief distress signal from the trawler, which was foundering in waves up to 6 metres in height.
