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Urgent checks are being carried out to establish whether any Brits were on board a Canadian whale-watching boat that sunk, killing at least five people.
The boat, carrying 27 passengers and operated by a local tour company, got into difficulty off the coast of British Columbia at about 4pm local time on Sunday afternoon.
A major search and rescue operation was launched, with the boat partly submerged eight nautical miles from Tofino, on Vancouver Island.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "Following the incident in Tofino on October 25, we are urgently seeking information from the local authorities and stand ready to provide consular support to any British nationals involved."
Rescue: Canadian authorities have mounted a search for victimsReutersLt Commander Desmond James of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the military agency's search had concluded with five people dead, 21 rescued and one person missing.
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It was a clear bright day when the 20-metre Leviathan II, operated by Jamie's Whaling Station, made a mayday call late on Sunday afternoon, local time, in the tourist community which is a popular destination for whale watchers on the country's west coast.
John Forde, who runs The Whale Centre, another whale-watching operation, said he did not know how the boat could have sunk.
"Over the course of a season and years we take out thousands and thousands of people on these trips in conditions similar today. I have no idea what the issue was or what actually happened," he said.
Additional reporting by the Press Association