ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland -- Three Canadian fishing vessels rescued about 150 men, women and children who were found yesterday afternoon adrift in two lifeboats in the Atlantic Ocean, a Coast Guard spokesman reported.

"They were let off a ship," said the spokesman, Bruce Reid.

He reported the victims were believed to be from Sri Lanka, and said they told their rescuers they had spent five days in the lifeboats after leaving the ship.

The name of the mystery ship was not immediately known. Canadian officials said initial reports indicated the people in the lifeboats had been forced to abandon the ship, but there were language problems and it was not known why.

Sri Lanka, an island off India's southern tip, has been torn by a separatist revolt, and thousands of citizens have sought refuge abroad.

A spokesman for the Sri Lanka Consulate in Ottawa declined comment and said a statement might be issued later.

At the Canadian Armed Forces Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Maj. Bill Whitehead told The Associated Press that the rescue operation began when a Canadian fishing vessel, the Atlantic Reaper, radioed yesterday afternoon that it had spotted two large lifeboats.

It gave the location as six miles south of St. Shotts on the southern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. That is about 85 miles south-southwest of the Newfoundland capital of St. John's.

Two other Canadian fishing boats, the Mary Teresa and Betford, joined the Atlantic Reaper and reported they had picked up 150 survivors, Whitehead said. He reported the Atlantic Reaper initially radioed that 147 people had been rescued, but the figure was placed at 150 following additional reports from the two other vessels. Those reports said the survivors were cold and hungry.

Whitehead said the reports indicated the 150 were all of the people who had left the ship and none was missing. He also said no distress calls had been received from the ship.

The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Leonard Cowley is en route to the site to transfer the victims and take them to St. John's or another suitable port, Whitehead said. Heavy fog was reported in the area.

Coast Guard officials said it could take the Cowley seven to eight hours to sail to St. John's after taking the victims aboard.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, in fighting between government forces and Tamil separatists in the past three years.

Tamil militants are demanding autonomy in the northern and eastern zones of the island.

The Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, form 18 percent of Sri Lanka's population of 16 million and they claim economic and political discrimination by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority.