A boat believed to have been carrying asylum seekers from Turkey to Greece fleeing the Middle East, has reportedly sank off the coast of Lesvos in the eastern Aegean.
The Greek coast guard said the bodies of the three men and three women were found early Tuesday morning near the island’s main town of Mytilini. There were no signs of a shipwreck and the discovery of the bodies was not preceded by any call to emergency numbers about a boat in distress near the island, the coast guard said. None of the six had been wearing life jackets. Another body was reportedly found later on Tuesday without further information.
The incident was reported by residents of the island’s capital of Mytilini, who found the seven bodies washed up on the beach of Epano Skala according to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) and Kathimerini.
The coast guard has launched an operation to locate the wreck and any possible survivors with three coast guard patrol boats, a helicopter and nearby ships to look for potential survivors, while authorities were also searching the coastline.
