Firth of Forth: Two people missing after boat overturns off Scottish coast

It is thought the three men, understood to be from Fife, were bringing in crail pots when their boat capsized.

In a statement, the chief inspector said: “We are continuing to search the coast for both Jason Buchan and David Stead and our coordinated search activity will continue in the forthcoming days”.

A large-scale operation is still ongoing to find James Buchan, 35, and David Stead, 47, who were on board a small fishing vessel when it overturned in a squall.

It was stood down as darkness fell but resumed this morning, with local lifeboats searching the coastline.

It continues after the body of another man was recovered from the water around one mile off the shore at East Wemyss in the Firth of Forth yesterday afternoon.

The boat involved, which is believed to be about 10ft long, was also recovered.

A third man, Birrell Stewart, 30, was pulled from the sea by helicopter but was pronounced dead at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.

Tom Adams, a local councillor, said residents in the area were “devastated” by the incident.

A spokesman for the Aberdeen Coastguard said: “We’ve recovered one person by helicopter to hospital”.

A search was launched by the coastguard after the men were reported missing amid worsening weather conditions at about 5pm on Monday.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “We are dealing with an incident in East Wemyss”.

National maritime operations manager with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Mark Rodaway, told BBC Scotland the search area “remains quite tight” and is being searched extensively by his team.

“A full-scale search was launched by UK Coastguard which included a rescue helicopter based at RAF Boulmer, RNLI lifeboats, Coastguard rescue teams and police officers”.