THE bodies of two missing French fishermen have been found after a fishing boat sank off the Cornish coast.

The two men, who had been missing for over a week, were onboard a five-strong crew vessel which got into trouble in waters south-west of the Eddystone Lighthouse, off Plymouth, on Saturday, August 29.

Following a distress call that evening, a coastguard rescue helicopter, fixed-wing plane and RNLI lifeboats from Cornwall and Devon began looking for the French-registered boat.

During an overnight search, three people onboard the trawler were rescued and taken to either the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro or Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital for medical attention.

The French Navy's Falcon 50 was also deployed to assist in finding the boat before the coastguard suspended the search at 8.20pm on Sunday, August 30, with two people still unaccounted for.

The boat was eventually located on a seabed on the night of Tuesday, September 1, close to where its last GPS transmission was raised.

After weather conditions improved to enable rescue teams to resume the search, French divers found and recovered the bodies on Saturday, September 5.