Five migrants die as boat sinks in the Aegean, Turkish coastguard says

ANKARA/ATHENS: Five migrants died when a dinghy sank off the coast of southwest Turkey on Saturday, the coastguard said, adding that it had rescued 11 people, while Greece said five more migrants from the same wreck were found on a nearby island.

Turkey’s coastguard said it had arrived at the scene after learning that a boat was taking in water at 6:20 a.m. (0320 GMT). It rescued 11 people, including a child, and brought them to Didim port to hand them off to health personnel.

The Greek coastguard said it was informed by Turkey about those rescued from a “half-sunken dinghy” in Turkish waters. It said five people were found alive on the island of Farmakonisi, some 19 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast of Didim.

Those rescued said there were a total of 31 people on the boat, the Greek coastguard added. Both the Turkish and Greek coastguards said search and rescue operations were continuing.

Further west in the Mediterranean, more than 1,300 migrants have been rescued in three separate operations off the southern tip of Italy, the Italian coastguard said on Saturday, two weeks after at least 74 people died when their boat hit rocks near the coast.