At Least 15 Die in Rare Collision Between Migrant Boat and Greek Patrol Vessel

At least 15 people died after a collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek Coast Guard vessel off the island of Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea, authorities said. The coast guard said 11 men and four women were killed and 26 others were wounded, including 11 children and two coast guard officers, and a search was under way for other survivors.

The coast guard said its vessel detected the migrant speedboat "moving without navigation lights" during a routine patrol and signaled for it to stop with lights and warning sounds; it said the boat reversed course and crashed into the patrol vessel's starboard side, capsizing and sinking.

Officials said the exact circumstances were not immediately clear and declined to say whether the migrants died from injuries sustained in the crash or from drowning. Christos Tsiachris, director of Chios’s general hospital, said several migrants had undergone surgery and that none of the injured bore gunshot wounds.

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