Police in southern Norway have called off the rescue portion of a massive search and rescue effort to find four Danish men missing after their small fishing boat capsized on Wednesday. They say there is no chance of finding any of the men alive.
Two of the six men who had set off on the fishing trip in a 16-foot boat did survive the capsizing. One of them, 24-year-old Søren Thuesen, helped get another ashore to the closest island, and then he ran over and swam between a chain of small islands for around eight hours before he finally could summon help.
“That just shows the nearly super-human powers that some of us can exhibit when such things happen,” Ermst Larsen, communications chief for the search and rescue effort, told local newspaper Fædrelandsvennen of Kristiansand.
Rescue efforts were called off early Friday after officials at the Agder Police District determined there was no hope any of the four still missing could have survived around 40 hours in the chilly, stormy seas off Mandal. Several helicopters and boats searched all of Thursday, also on the various islands and rocky outcroppings found off the southern coast, in the hopes any of the men might have made their way or been washed ashore. Some search efforts were continuing Friday, but only for the bodies of the men.
None of those on the small boat had been wearing life jackets and survivors said the boat ran out of fuel only an hour after they’d sailed out from the island of Sjernøy Wednesday afternoon.
Views and News staff
