An overloaded migrant boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, resulting in the death of at least 79 people and injury of hundreds of others, international media reported on Wednesday.
The migrant boat left from Libya and most of those on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, according to a shipping ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The ship had left Libya on Wednesday, June 14 as it sank in open seas off Greece. Search and rescue operations were going on throughout the night to help survivors of the deadly incident.
Shipping experts have described the incident as one of Europe’s deadliest shipping disasters in recent years, which claimed the lives of at least 79 migrants, and out of 750 people, only 104 have been rescued. However, the fate of the remaining migrants is still unclear besides the search operation is going on.
Survivors were taken to the Greek port of Kalamata near Pylos. Covered in blankets, they rested on mattresses at a warehouse shelter, and the migration ministry was expected to move them to a camp outside Athens, Reuters reported.
A European aid and rescue charity organization claim that the ship was carrying 750 passengers, while the United Nations migration agency put the number of passengers on the ship at 400.
Following the dreadful incident, the interim government of Greece has announced three days of public mourning, and it is one of the deadliest shipping disasters in Europe after 96 people died when a boat hit a rock on the coast of Italy during a storm in February.
