Two crewmen dead in tanker accident

Two Argentine crewmen have died in an accident on board a tanker off the Mayo coast.

It happened aboard the Panamanian-registered gas oil vessel "Princess Eva" in ferocious gales a hundred miles out.

A third man who has reportedly lost a leg is due to be airlifted by the Irish coastguard to a hospital in Galway this evening.

Department of Marine spokesman, Tom McLoughlin, says it is not yet clear what happened.

"Our initial understanding is that a freak wave may have hit the vessel this afternoon at a time when the men were in the susceptible area and as such that appears to the nature of the incident but as far as the details of it we are not quite sure yet."