One dead, 50 missing after South Korean trawler sinks in Arctic

One sailor has died and more than 50 people are missing after a South Korean fishing trawler sank in Arctic waters off eastern Russia, news reports say.

Two Russian vessels rescued eight people from the Oryong-501, one of whom died of hypothermia, Artur Rets, an official in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky told the Interfax news agency.

The fate of 54 people was unclear.

Rets said that four Russian vessels in the area, located in the Bering Sea off Russia's easternmost Chukotka region, were currently searching for survivors.

The rescue efforts were hampered by the stormy weather and up to six-metre-high waves.

The first information that the ship was in trouble was received when an automatic alarm was set off, the report said.

The crew did not issue a distress signal.

Rets suggested that the vessel sank very fast after water entered its hull when the trawling net was hauled in.

The majority of the ship's crew of 62 is South Korean, but there were also Indonesian and Filipino citizens on board, Rets said.