Arya News - A Greek coastguard vessel and a boat carrying migrants collided in the Aegean sea on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, police said.
A Greek coastguard vessel and a boat carrying migrants collided in the Aegean sea on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, police said.
The collision involved a “port police patrol vessel” and a “high-speed” small boat off the island of Chios, near Turkey, a coastguard official said.
The bodies of 14 people – 11 men and three women – were recovered from the sea.
Another 25 migrants, including about 11 children, were rescued and transported to a Chios hospital. Two injured coast guard officers were also hospitalised.
One of the injured women later died in hospital, the coast guard added, bringing the total death toll to at least 15.
Greek emergency personnel wait to transfer the bodies of those killed - Reuters
Public broadcaster ERT said the patrol gave a warning signal after spotting the migrant boat, but it tried to escape.
A search and rescue operation for survivors involving four patrol vessels, an air force helicopter and a private boat carrying divers remains under way.
Video footage by a local news site showed at least one person being carried in a blanket from a boat moored on the side of a jetty into a waiting coast guard vehicle with blue flashing lights, Others appear to lead two children, one of them limping, towards the car.
Emergency services at the scene in Chios - Reuters
Large numbers of migrants seek to cross the Mediterranean each year to reach Europe.
The UN refugee agency said in November more than 1,700 people died or were missing in 2025 on migration routes to Europe in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic off the coast of west Africa.
The International Organisation for Migration said about 33,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
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