A Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guards­man is miss­ing af­ter a ves­sel of in­ter­est sank while be­ing board­ed on Thurs­day. 

The for­eign ves­sel was in­ter­cept­ed by a Coast Guard pa­trol boat, and three for­eign na­tion­als were re­moved, the TTCG said.

Two Coast Guard mem­bers re­mained on­board. One at­tempt­ed to check for oth­er per­sons but be­came trapped when the ves­sel sud­den­ly sub­merged due to rough seas.

"One of the Coast Guard sailors at­tempt­ed to de­ter­mine if there were any oth­er per­sons on­board; how­ev­er, the rough seas caused the ves­sel to sub­merge sud­den­ly. The sailor who had re­mained above deck was thrown in­to the wa­ter, while the oth­er be­came trapped in­side as the ves­sel sank from sight," the of­fi­cial state­ment read.

The sec­ond sailor was thrown in­to the wa­ter and was quick­ly res­cued.

Ef­forts to se­cure the sink­ing ves­sel failed. Search op­er­a­tions are on­go­ing for the miss­ing sailor.