A Spanish fishing boat sank off Canada’s east coast overnight Monday, killing “several” of the 22 crew members on board, a Spanish coastguard spokeswoman said on Monday.

Rescuers saved three crew members and were continuing to search for survivors in the area off Newfoundland on Canada’s Atlantic coast where the ship sank, she added.

Twelve crew members are Spanish nationals, eight are from Peru and the rest from Ghana, according to Spanish media reports.

“We have been informed that… bodies have been found,” Maica Larriba, the central government representative in Pontevedra in the northwestern region of Galicia where the trawler is based, told public radio.

The three survivors were found in a lifeboat suffering from hypothermia, she added.

“The temperature of the water at the moment is horrible, it is very low,” Larriba said.

Rescuers found two other lifeboats empty and were looking for a fourth.

The Spanish government is “following with concern” the rescue operation, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting.

“I can confirm that three members of the crew have been rescued,” she added.

The fishing vessel, a freezer trawler registered in 2004, was based in the port of Marin in Galicia and belongs to shipowner Manuel Nores.

The company, founded in 1950, has eight freezer trawlers and some 300 employees, according to its web site.