Off the coast of Greece: At least 78 people drown in a serious boating accident

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According to official information, at least 78 people have died in a serious boating accident in southwestern Greece. But the number of victims could still rise considerably, the authorities feared on Wednesday.

Coastguard circles and the responsible ministries said there were probably several hundred people on board. By noon, 104 people had been rescued. The large-scale search in international waters off the Peloponnese peninsula continued.

Suddenly capsized

“We hear figures that we dare not say aloud at all,” says a reporter from state broadcaster ERT. Authorities referred to statements by survivors, according to which more than 400 people could be on board. It is questionable whether the victims can be rescued at all – the boat would have sunk quickly on Wednesday night, many people were packed below decks and could not escape, it was said.

The port city of Kalamata on the Peloponnese peninsula became a crisis center: survivors were taken to the hospital there and to other clinics in the region, some of whom required treatment for hypothermia. President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou flew to Kalamata to get a sense of the situation.

On Tuesday, Italian authorities informed their Greek neighbors about a fully manned fishing boat in the Greek search and rescue area, the Coast Guard said in a statement. A Frontex aircraft then located the boat 47 nautical miles southwest of the Peloponnese peninsula. Both the Greek Coast Guard and passing cargo ships had repeatedly offered assistance to the passengers by radio, but this was refused, the ministry said.

Instead, the ship continued towards Italy and then suddenly capsized and sank during the night. According to survivors, it had departed from Tobruk in Libya. The migrants are said to include people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. The passengers included pregnant women and small children.

The Greek authorities hear three survivors of the serious boat accident. They are suspected of having acted as smugglers, state broadcaster ERT reports.

Only men saved

The accident site is near the deepest point of the Mediterranean Sea, the so-called Calypso layer, which extends about five kilometers to the seabed. A salvage of the wreck could be next to impossible. Patrol boats from the Coast Guard, Air Force, a Navy frigate, six freighters and other vessels were still on duty Wednesday afternoon searching for survivors and recovering the dead, authorities said.

After the serious boat accident, Greek media published photos for the first time on Wednesday evening of the accident boat that was overcrowded with migrants. The footage comes from the Greek Coast Guard, who observed and contacted the boat in international waters before it capsized and sank Wednesday night. At least 79 people were killed. So far 104 passengers have been rescued. The recordings suggest there may have been more than 500 people on board.

The photos show that up to 200 people were standing on the deck of the rusted fishing cutter alone. One more tweendeck and the hull can be made up. Greek media reported that the 104 people rescued were all men. The other passengers, who according to the survivors included pregnant women and many children, would have remained below deck and had no chance of escaping to the outside as the boat quickly sank.

The boat was discovered on Tuesday in international waters between Greece and Italy. The Greek coast guard and also passing cargo ships had offered help by radio, but the migrants refused and said they wanted to continue to Italy. Panic broke out on board early Wednesday morning. The boat capsized and sank quickly, the Greek coastguard said. Search and rescue operations will continue on Thursday evening.

Since 2014, 20,000 migrants have died

More than 20,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to the UN. At the end of February 2023, at least 90 people were killed in a boat accident in Italy off the coast of Calabria.

In April 2015, more than 1,000 people lost their lives off the Libyan coast in what was probably the worst disaster in the Mediterranean to date. In April 2016, up to 500 people died in a shipwreck en route from Libya to Italy. Just a month later, more than 1,000 people died within a week in various accidents: 300 migrants died off the coast of Crete, among others. (SDA)

Source: Blick