Passengers on a cruise ship applauded when three fishermen were rescued from a life raft drifting off England's east coast, while the coastguard searches for two more.
The Pacific Princess turned around to rescue the men, whose boat sank about 40km north east of Great Yarmouth four hours prior, after spotting a distress flare in the North Sea.
Passenger Teena Dowd said the captain announced there was a life raft on the ship's starboard side at around 6.30pm, and that within the hour the three men had been helped onto the boat.
Dowd, who is on the vessel with her daughter, said concerned passengers lined the deck and clapped as the shaken men were helped out of their lifeboat.
"Because we all at the time thought there was only three of them, and everybody clapped when they came on the ship.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"But we didn't know until a while later, when the captain announced that there was actually two more and we were still searching for them."
The ship stayed in the area for around an hour before being released by the Coastguard and continuing to Dover.
Lee Duncan, coastguard operations controller for the east coast, said: "The crew of the sunken fishing vessel are all foreign nationals, we know that the three recovered men had been in the life raft for four hours before they were spotted by the cruise ship.
"We believe the two missing crew were seen to enter the water."
