At least 59 dead after boat with 700 people on board capsizes
At least 59 people have died and hundreds more are still missing at sea after a boat sank off the southern coast of Greece.
Local media reported that some 700 passengers were on board the vessel when it overturned 45 miles south-west of the Peloponnese region.
Dozens of bodies have since been recovered from the water, with the tragic death toll continuing to rise by the hour.
Headed towards Italy, the boat is believed to have been packed with migrants andto have sailed from the port city of Tobruk in eastern Libya.
A search and rescue operation is underway, but it remains unclear how many are missing at sea, the Greek coast guard said.
Authorities confirmed that 104 people have been rescued so, including four who were taken to hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
Six coast guard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, a helicopter, and several private vessels from the European Union border protection agency Frontex are taking part in the ongoing search.
The Italian coast guard first alerted authorities and Frontex about the approaching vessel on Tuesday.
Traffickers are increasingly taking dangerously overloaded boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to try to avoid local coast guard patrols.
This comes after 90 migrants on a US-flagged yacht were rescued in the area after they made a distress call on Sunday.
Separately, a yacht with more than 70 migrants on board was towed to a port on the south coast of Greece’s island of Crete after authorities received a distress call.
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