Search on for missing 8 after migrant boat capsizes

Rescue crews on Monday mounted a search for eight people reported missing after a boat believed to have been carrying migrants capsized off the eastern Aegean island of Samos.

The coast guard said four people had been picked up – two by a fishing boat and another two by a vessel of the European border patrol agency Frontex. The survivors told authorities a total of 12 people had been on board the dinghy when it capsized south of Samos.

Three coast guard vessels, a Frontex boat, a cargo ship and a helicopter were participating in the search, authorities said.

Earlier this month, at least 27 people drowned in two separate incidents. In one, 18 people died when a boat that had set sail from Turkey sank off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos, while in the other, a yacht carrying about 100 people sank in a gale, killing at least nine and leaving six missing. [AP]