At least 79 migrants have been drowned and hundreds of others were missing and feared dead after an overcrowded boat sank in the open seas of Greece, according to media reports.
A European rescue-support charity said it believed around 750 people were on board the 20- to 30-metre-long (65- to 100-foot-long) vessel, Reuters reported.
The UN’s migration agency estimated up to 400 while Greece declined to speculate on the passenger count.
Authorities said 104 people were rescued after the sinking in international waters about 75 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Greece’s southern Peloponnese peninsula, according to AP report.
‘s shipping ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of those on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan.
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.
The shipwreck was the deadliest off Greece in several years. In February, 96 people died when their wooden boat smashed into rocks on Italy’s Calabrian coast during a storm.
Greece’s caretaker administration, in power between an inconclusive election on May 21 and new elections on June 25, declared three days of national mourning.
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