The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) are searching for a Maltese-registered fishing vessel with five persons on board after it was reported overdue yesterday.

The AFM said that its Operations Centre at Luqa Barracks was informed that the MF Simshar was overdue at around 7.20 p.m. by the crew’s worried families. The vessel had been expected to return to port last Friday evening.

The AFM immediately initiated a communications search, transmitting a message to all ships and the Italian coast radio stations to be on the lookout

Tunisian and Libyan authorities were also informed and asked to provide any information regarding the Simshar, which had left Malta last Monday.

But the communications search has so far failed to produce significant results said that AFM.

The Air Wing’s Islander aircraft has already conducted two fruitless searches.

The first covered an area of 2,100 square nautical miles and the second 1,800 square nautical miles.

Meanwhile, attempts to contact the vessel by means of VHF marine radio and satellite telephone continue to receive no answer.

The AFM said that search efforts will continue tomorrow.

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