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Greece: Five children among 22 dead in migrant boat sinking

Published:Thursday | November 3, 2022 | 5:26 PM
In this photo provided by the Greek Coast Guard, some of the nine men who survived a shipwreck and were found on an uninhabited islet are covered with thermal blankets as they sit aboard a Greek Coast guard vessel, in the Aegean Sea, Greece, on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. (Greek Coast Guard via AP)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Five children are among the 22 people confirmed dead in the sinking of a sailboat that had been carrying migrants, Greece's coast guard said Thursday, while a search-and-rescue operation continued for 34 other people still reported missing.

Only 12 people, all men, have been found alive since the sailboat sank early Tuesday in notoriously treacherous waters between the islands of Evia and Andros, east of the Greek capital.

The coast guard said two of the 12 survivors were arrested on suspicion of belonging to the smuggling gang that had organised the voyage from Turkey.

It said one was suspected of skippering the vessel, and the other of assisting him.

Both faced charges of belonging to a criminal organisation and causing a shipwreck.

Most survivors were found on an uninhabited islet, and told authorities they had been on a sailboat carrying about 68 people that set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast.

They said the boat capsized and sank in rough seas.

The initial rescue operation was conducted in gale-force winds in the Kafireas Strait between the two islands.

The coast guard said Thursday that a total of 22 bodies had been retrieved from the sea, including five children — three boys and two girls — and six women.

It was the latest in a series of recent deadly shipwrecks of boats carrying migrants through Greek seas.

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