RESCUERS called off a search yesterday for 15 missing Filipino crew members of a freighter that capsized a day earlier in a shallow, icy Norwegian inlet, bringing the toll of those feared dead to 18.

After saving 12 people aboard a large freighter that abruptly capsized in a Norwegian inlet, rescuers mounted a desperate search early today for 16 others as hopes faded they would be found alive inside the overturned hull.

A large freighter with 30 people aboard capsized near the western Norwegian port of Bergen today, with rescuers working into the bitterly cold night to free some of them from inside the overturned hull.