Witness accounts counsel between 400 and 750 individuals had been on the fishing boat which capsized on Wednesday morning. The precise circumstances of the boat sinking whereas it was being shadowed by the Greek coastguard are nonetheless unclear.
An 18-year-old teenager who survived after a fishing boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Greece has been pictured in an emotional reunion together with his brother.
Mohammad, from Syria, was seen crying and holding his elder brother Fadi’s arms by a steel barricade on the port of Kalamata in Greece, the place survivors had been sleeping for the previous two days.
Fadi, who travelled from the Netherlands to seek for his brother, stated “Thank God to your security”, as he repeatedly kissed his youthful sibling on the pinnacle.
Dozens extra family members gathered on the port hoping for information, clasping screenshots of their family members on their mobiles telephones.
At least 78 people drowned and 104 were rescued after the vessel capsized about 50 miles from the southern coastal city of Pylos on Wednesday morning.
Within the fast aftermath of the catastrophe the survivors had been dropped at shore by Greek authorities, and the our bodies of those that died recovered.
Witness accounts counsel between 400 and 750 individuals had packed the 20 to 30 metre-long fishing boat.
The ageing vessel was thought to have departed from Egypt, then picked up passengers within the Libyan coastal metropolis of Tobruk on 10 June.
9 individuals have been arrested over the shipwreck, a Greek transport ministry official stated.
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The precise circumstances of the vessel sinking whereas it was being shadowed by the Greek coastguard are nonetheless unclear.
Greek authorities and European Union border safety company Frontex tracked the boat earlier than it capsized and sank.
Authorities, who had been alerted by Italy on Tuesday and subsequently monitored the vessel over a interval of 15 hours earlier than it sank, say occupants on the vessel repeatedly refused Greek assist, saying they wished to go to Italy.
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Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou, citing survivor accounts, stated that passengers within the maintain of the fishing boat included ladies and youngsters however that the variety of lacking, believed to be within the a whole bunch, remained unclear.
Survivors who spoke to Greek authorities stated they paid $4,500 every to go to Italy.
The United Nations has recorded greater than 20,000 deaths and disappearances within the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it essentially the most harmful migrant crossing on the earth.
