Bodies of four more drowned Venezuelans found

The Venezuelan authorities have confirmed that four more bodies were found by the end of Monday's search for survivors from a boat on which a group of Venezuelans were trying to reach Trinidad and Tobago. The boat sank last Friday.

The death toll is now six, with seven rescued and ten people still missing.

Lizeta Hernández, governor of Delta Amacuro state, Venezuela, told local media the authorities have not given up search efforts at sea.

After Monday's search efforts ended, she said: "At this moment, unfortunately, we have six deceased, four female and two male.

"We remain active until we find the ten Venezuelan citizens we still have to rescue, among them, presumably, three minors," she said.

The Venezuelan authorities have not specified the total number of people who were on board the boat.

Hernández had announced the rescue of seven people over the weekend: Leonardo Marín, Norberto Martínez, Reinaldo Villarroel, Alberto Monterola, Alexander Jiménez, Lazarde Salazar and Alba Sánchez, the only woman.

On Tuesday, the relatives of three missing people who are in TT told Newsday no Venezuelan government spokesman has inform them about the search.

A woman who was waiting for the three said she had found out what happened from the media.

"I spoke with my family members for the last time on Thursday night. Then on Friday several people from Tucupita began to say a boat was wrecked at sea, and since then we have been worried, but with the hope they are still alive," said the woman, who did not want to identify herself.

The boat left Thursday night from La Horqueta, a community in Delta Amacuro state, near Tucupita.

Reports said the shipwreck happened at dawn on Friday in the area of the Bocas, still in Venezuelan waters.

One of the survivors told the Venezuelan media at the time of the accident there were three-metre-high waves.