A third body has been found in the ongoing search for five French tourists - two men, two women and a teenage boy - who were reported missing on a small boat on Monday afternoon.

Two women were recovered dead from the sea off Fomm ir-Rih yesterday afternoon.

The corpse of a man was found in the south Comino channel this morning by an AFM helicopter.  The body was recovered by the Melita search and rescue launch and is in the process of being identified.

The five - Marie Grimaud, 38, Sandrine Gaudet, 36, Philippe Grimaud, 41, Elias Chnouni, 49 and his son Eli, 14 - were last seen leaving on a small boat from Xlendi at about midnight on Sunday night after dinner in a restaurant.

The motoryacht on which the French tourists had been staying. It moved to Mgarr yesterday.

They had been due back on their motoryacht berthed off Dwejra. However they never showed up. Their absence was reported by the yacht's skipper at 4.30 p.m. on Monday, sparking a search by the AFM using fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. Patrol aircraft from the US Sixth Fleet and the Italian coastguard, based in Sicily, joined the search yesterday afternoon.

The five had pre-booked their restaurant table and arrived on time in their boat, which they berthed a few metres from the restaurant.

The five were described as having been friendly with the staff. Mr Chnouniof  had celebrated his birthday and a cake was prepared for him.

The sea was calm when they arrived but it was getting rough as they left, and they even had some difficulty boarding their four-metre boat.  They would have faced a head wind and a rough open sea as they turned towards Dwejra.

The AFM yesterday said a capsized boat was found along with the bodies of the two women, who were wearing life vests. A third life vest was also found.