(ATHENS) Dozens of migrants are missing after the shipwreck overnight from Wednesday to Thursday of a sailboat caught in strong winds off the southern coast of Greece, said the coastguards.
Posted at 6:13 p.m.
A spokeswoman said seven people who were rescued near the island of Kythera said the boat was carrying 95 other people when it sank.
“The boat sank and they ended up in the water,” she told AFP.
She added that the survivors managed to make it to shore near a port on the island and were taken care of by firefighters and police.
Information on their nationalities was not immediately available, she said.
Winds of more than one hundred kilometers per hour were blowing in the area, the spokeswoman added.
More and more migrants are arriving in southern Greece from neighboring Turkey as smugglers try to circumvent increased patrols in the Aegean to reach Italy.