The search for two missing fishermen has been called off after the coastguard discovered their bodies.

A crew of five foreign nationals were unaccounted for after their fishing boat sank about 25 miles north-east of Great Yarmouth on Saturday.

A nearby cruise ship which spotted a distress flare rescued three of the fishermen, who had been drifting for hours in the North Sea in a life raft.

A coastguard helicopter spotted the bodies of the two remaining men near the wreckage of their sunken vessel on Sunday, and airlifted them to Humberside airport.

Aimee Rampton, a coastguard operations controller, said: “The helicopter located the bodies of the missing crew near the sunken fishing vessel wreckage. All units have now stood down. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the crew men.”

Formal identification of the bodies is yet to take place.

Humberside police said it was trying to contact the families of the deceased.