Scores dead, hundreds missing in migrant boat tragedy
At least 79 migrants drowned early on Wednesday and hundreds more were missing and feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, in one of Europe's deadliest shipping disasters in recent years. As a painstaking search for survivors continued, a European rescue-support charity said it believed around 750 people were on board the 20- to 30-metre-long vessel. The UN's migration agency estimated up to 400 while Greece declined to speculate on the passenger count. By midday local time, 104 people had been rescued. A media report said the boat left from Libya, and a shipping ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of those on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. Search and rescue operations were to continue through the night, with military aircraft deploying flares to light up the Mediterranean waters around the wreck site about 80km southwest of the southern Greek coastal town of Pylos. Survivors were taken to the Greek port of Kalamata near Pylos. Covered in blankets, they rested on mattresses at a warehouse shelter, and the migration ministry was expected to move them to a camp outside Athens. The shipwreck was the deadliest off Greece in several years. In February, 96 people died when their wooden boat smashed into rocks on Italy's Calabrian coast during a storm. Greece's caretaker administration, in power between an inconclusive election on May 21 and new elections on June 25, declared three days of national mourning. Greek state broadcaster ERT said the boat was en route to Italy from the Libyan town of Tobruk, which lies south of the Greek island of Crete. Greek authorities did not confirm the vessel's departure port. Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, said it received alerts from people on board a ship in distress off Greece late on Tuesday, with erratic contact after that. "According to the people, there were 750 people on board... We now hear reports of a shipwreck and fear they are true," it said on Twitter. (Reuters)_____________________________
Last updated: 2023-06-15 HKT 10:06 