A Filipino seafarer was one of the rescued crew members of the ill-fated ship that capsized due to bad weather off the coast of Lebanon.

"They were very scared and cold when we pulled them out of the water," a Lebanese rescue official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

AFP reported that 83 crew members were on board the Panamanian-flagged ship “Danny F II”.

Officials said Danny F II was transporting livestock from Uruguay to the Syrian port of Tartous when it overturned some 11 nautical miles off the Lebanese port of Tripoli at around 7:30 p.m.

The ship was forced to change course due bad weather. It was trying to reach the Lebanese capital Beirut when it capsized.

Lebanese navy rescue boats, including a medical team, rushed to the scene of the disaster along with three vessels from the United Nations force stationed off Lebanon (UNIFIL) and a British Royal Air Force helicopter from Cyprus.

Syrian ships were also involved in the rescue effort, officials said.

"Three maritime task force ships, one Italian and two German, were dispatched about 10 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli after the Lebanese navy received a distress call from a Panamanian-flagged ship," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP.

"Preliminary information indicates the ship sank with 83 people aboard," Terenti added.

A port official in Tripoli told AFP that 24 crew members had been rescued some two hours after the accident, four of them by a Syrian boat.

Tenenti said UNIFIL had recovered six people.

The ship's operator, Agencia Schandy, told AFP in Montevideo that the Danny F II had a crew of 76 and six passengers -- four Uruguayans, one Brazilian and an Australian.

The ship left Montevideo on November 23 with 10,224 sheep and 17,932 cattle. All of the animals were presumed lost after the ship capsized and sank, the Tripoli port official said.

A British military spokesman in Cyprus said one rescue helicopter had been scrambled from RAF Akrotiri some 240 kilometers almost due west of Tripoli to aid the rescue effort.

"The helicopter is not equipped to winch at night but we provide a searchlight facility to lead the boats where there are life rafts," Stuart Bardsley told AFP.

Thursday's accident came as severe thunderstorms lashed Lebanon, causing heavy flooding in some parts of the country and widespread damage.

A Togolese-flagged ship also sank off the southern coast of Lebanon last week. Several crew members were rescued by Israel but a number are still missing. Agence France-Presse