Istanbul, Turkey
Reuters
At least 22 people drowned, including seven children, when a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s north-west province of Canakkale, the local governor’s office said on Friday, adding that search and rescue efforts continued.
In a statement, the Canakkale governor’s office said that two people had been rescued by the coast guard and two others had survived “by their own means” after the boat capsized.
It said a plane, two helicopters, and a total of 18 vessels from the coast guard and other rescue authorities were involved in the search and rescue efforts, along with 502 personnel.
Footage from Kabatepe port showed a boat taking part in search and rescue operations returning to port with body bags on the deck. Health workers and security personnel could be seen carrying the body bags off the boat and onto ambulances waiting there.
Earlier, Canakkale Governor Ilhami Aktas told the state-run Anadolu news agency that the four rescued migrants were admitted to hospital.
It was not immediately clear how many migrants were on the boat, the governor told Anadolu.
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Meanwhile, at least 34 migrants were missing and two died after their boat sank off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, the Tunisian national guard said on Friday.
The boat which sailed from Libya coast was carrying 70 people, and 34 people were rescued off the southern town of Zarzis.
This week, Tunisian coast guard also recovered five bodies of migrants.
With improving weather in the last weeks, the flow of African migrants, including Tunisians, in boats heading for Italy has increased.
A record 1,313 migrants were reported to have died or went missing off the Tunisian coast last year, a rights group said on last month, highlighting the unending migrant crisis in the North African country.
– Additional reporting by ALI KUCUKGOCMEN
