Three migrants are feared dead after a small boat sank around 26 miles off Benidorm.
The alert was sounded on Monday evening after a fishing crew spotted a group of people in the water who were wearing life jackets.
Eight migrants, who had started their journey in Algeria on June 27, were rescued – five by the French fishing boat and another three by a Spanish coastguard helicopter.
They told the emergency services that three more people who were in the boat were missing.
A wide-ranging search was carried out yesterday between Cabo de la Nao in Jávea and the waters off Benidorm.
However, the missing migrants could not be found.
The French vessel took five of the men to France, while the remaining three were flown to Valencia airport.
The emergency services reported that the three migrants in Spain had been taken to Valencia hospital suffering from burns and exposure.
