The bodies of 16 women and one man have been recovered from waters off the Greek island of Lesbos after a boat carrying people from countries in Africa sank in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The Greek coastguard spokesperson Nikos Kokkalas said a large operation spanning various agencies was under way to find other passengers who had been on the dinghy that set sail from Turkey.
“The women were all from African countries, aged 20 upward,” said Kokkalas, who described survivors of the shipwreck as being “utterly panicked”.
At least 15 other people were thought to be missing. Nine had been saved, with at least three rescued from a remote rocky outcrop. “There is a search on land as well as the sea, and we hope that survivors made it to land,” Kokkalas told ERT, Greece’s state-run broadcaster.
The coastguard spokesperson, said the vessel that sank off Lesbos had been “completely destroyed”, and locals described how they watched in horror as the boat crashed into the rocks.
Credit: theguardian.com
