Greece boat news: 600 people feared dead in Greece boat accident, 79 dead bodies were removed.. 100 children were also aboard
The death toll from Thursday’s horrific boat accident in Greece continues to rise and survivors say there were more than 100 children on board. After which a large number of children are expected to die.
The boat capsized off the coast of Greece is one of Europe’s deadliest boat accidents and authorities have so far confirmed 79 deaths. The accident occurred when a fishing boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized off the coast of southern Greece. Officials said the incident occurred about 75 kilometers southwest of Greece’s southern Peloponnese region. For this, a big search and rescue operation is going on continuously in the area.
9 people arrested on suspicion of smuggling
So far nine people have been arrested in Egypt on suspicion of people smuggling, Greek TV reports. At the same time, the Coastguard is being criticized a lot because they did not try to stop the fishing boat full of people.
Rescuers are still searching the area where the boat capsized at sea, although the chances of finding survivors are getting slimmer as time goes on.
It is being told that this fishing boat had left Egypt empty and stopped at the Libyan port of Tobruk, from where it started loading migrants going to Italy. Slowly hundreds of people boarded this boat and this boat sank near the coast of Greece. A senior doctor at Kalamata General Hospital told the BBC there were more than 100 children on board.
Dr Manolis Makaris, head of cardiology, told the BBC that “(survivors) told us that there were a lot of children and women at the bottom of the ship.” He said two patients have given him approximate figures. He said, “One told me about 100 children, another about 50, so I don’t know the truth, but the figure is still high.”
Dr Makaris said he believed at least 600 people could have died in the disaster. He said, “The exact number of people on the boat was 750. This is the number everyone told me about.”
Meanwhile, families of some missing Egyptian children have sent photographs of their young relatives to the doctor and asked him to identify them. The doctor said that this is a great tragedy and Europe should not accept this situation. Everyone has to do something so that such incidents do not happen again.
At the same time, Greek government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris said, at the moment it is not known, what is the exact number, but he said that to keep people under control, smugglers lock them inside the boat.
According to the BBC, relatives of some of the missing have started reaching Kalamata in search of their loved ones. Aftab, who arrived in search of his relatives from the UK, told that there were four of his relatives in the boat, who were residents of Pakistan. One of his relatives has been found, but the remaining three are still missing, he said.
People say that the hospitals are full of dead bodies and the hospital staff are trying to hand over the dead bodies to the relatives of the people reaching there.
Boat accidents happen frequently
Let us tell you that such incidents happening on the coast of Greece have become very common now. People from war-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East try to enter European countries illegally in search of a better life.
Many times accidents happen due to the dangerous route, and sometimes due to excessive number of people boarding the boat, the boat becomes a victim of accident.
In the last week of February this year, 61 people, including a newborn, died when a boat full of migrants capsized. The accident occurred due to the boat hitting a rock in a storm near the coast of Calabria, Italy.