Five migrants died on Saturday when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Crete and around forty people are still missing, the Greek coast guard announced.
A large rescue operation is underway to try to find those missing in the maritime area south of Gavdos after the shipwreck which occurred shortly after midnight on Friday. 39 people were also rescued.
An Italian frigate and two helicopters are operating on the site, while, according to the coast guard, other vessels have headed towards the area of the tragedy.
The first dead person was found on Saturday morning. Another man with symptoms of drowning was taken by helicopter to hospital in Chania, western Crete, where he was admitted to intensive care, according to Greek media reports.
On Saturday afternoon, the coast guard said five migrants had been found dead. Greece has seen a 25% increase this year in the number of people fleeing war and poverty, with a 30% increase in Rhodes and the southeast Aegean alone, according to the Migration Ministry.
Several similar incidents have occurred in recent weeks, the latest in early November, when four people died near the island of Rhodes.
At the end of October, two people died near the island of Samos and, a few days earlier, four others, including two young children, lost their lives near the island of Kos
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