At least 79 dead after migrant vessel sinks off Greece, hundreds may be missing

KALAMATA, Greece (AP) — A fishing boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank Wednesday off the coast of Greece, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year.

Coast guard, navy and merchant vessels and aircraft fanned out for a vast search-and-rescue operation set to continue overnight.

It was unclear how many passengers were missing, but some initial reports suggested hundreds of people may have been aboard when the boat went down dozens of miles from shore.

Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV that it was impossible to accurately estimate the number of passengers.

He said it appeared that the 25- to 30-meter (80- to 100-foot) vessel capsized after people abruptly moved to one side.

“The outer deck was full of people, and we presume that the interior (of the vessel) would also have been full,” he said.

“It looks as if there was a shift among the people who were crammed on board and it capsized.”

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where survivors were taken, said that his information indicated there were “more than 500 people” on board.

“It sank very quickly and was gone by the time the rescue helicopter got there,” he said.

“The area where this happened has very deep water.”

Authorities said 104 people were rescued after the boat sank in international waters some 45 miles southwest of Greece's southern Peloponnese peninsula.

The spot is close to the deepest area of the Mediterranean Sea, and the depth could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

Twenty-five survivors ranging in age from 16 to 49 were hospitalised with hypothermia or fever.

At the port of Kalamata, around 70 exhausted survivors bedded down in sleeping bags and blankets provided by rescuers in a large warehouse, while outside paramedics set up tents for anyone who needed first aid.

Katerina Tsata, head of a Red Cross volunteer group in Kalamata, said the migrants were also given psychological support.

“They suffered a very heavy blow, both physical and mental,” she said.

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