Europe News

13 Children Among Victims of Latest Mediterranean Boat Sinking

Hellenic Coast Guard. Image: Flickr/Tilemahos Efthimiadis via Wikimedia

The Greek coast guard said Sunday that 28 people, half of them children, were killed when a boat carrying migrants and refugees capsized off the Greek island of Farmakonissi.

30 of the passengers managed to swim to shore and the coast guard rescued 68 other people.

A spokesperson for the Hellenic Coast Guard told the Associated Press that he did not know the nationalities of the victims but four of them were infants. Five girls and five boys were among the dead.

Four children were reported missing Saturday after another boat sank near the island of Samos, also in the Aegean Sea. Greek rescuers managed to save 25 people from that boat.

The International Organization for Migration said on Friday that almost 2,750 refugees and migrants have have drowned this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

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