Five French fishermen had a narrow escape when they were plucked to safety by a search and rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose after their trawler sank on Sunday.

The fishermen were airlifted from the 23 metre Duguesclin, which went down 30 miles south east of Falmouth following a reported leak in the engine cooling system.

The crew had some 15 minutes to get off the vessel and were able to don survival suits and jump into a life raft to await their rescuers.

The Culdrose crew were about to embark on a test flight when they were alerted at 5.45pm and were airborne within minutes.

Expecting to find a fishing boat in difficulties when they arrived on scene, they instead only saw a light, which was found to be coming from the life raft.

Petty Officer Aircrewman Alan Marjoribanks, from 771 squadron, said: "The vessel was nowhere to be seen. There was no radar contact, so it had obviously gone down pretty rapidly. When we hovered about 30 metres from the life raft it was clear the crew were in there."

The aircrewman jumped into the sea and swam to the dinghy, to find all the fishermen safely in the life raft. They had even had time to retrieve some personal possessions and the ship's log before the vessel went down.

The trawlermen were winched into the Sea King one by one and flown to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, before being taken to the Fishermen's Mission at Newlyn, where their condition was described as "quite shocked but unharmed". They returned to France the following day.

Culdrose spokesman Ian Mackay said this week: "It was a very straightforward job. The only slight surprise was that the vessel had already sunk."

The Falmouth and Fowey lifeboats were also called out by Falmouth Coastguard, but in the end their help was not needed.

The incident came just over a week after the sinking of another French trawler which claimed the lives of five fishermen.

The Bugaled Breizh went down 14 miles off The Lizard on January 15, possibly after being hit by a larger vessel or a submarine taking part in naval exercises in the area.

Two bodies were picked up by a Culdrose helicopter - the bodies of the three other crew members have not yet been recovered. Inquests into the deaths of the two men found were opened and adjourned by Cornwall coroner Emma Carlyon last week.