Dozens of migrants are missing at sea

Greek rescue teams were searching for dozens of migrants reported missing Tuesday after the overloaded sailboat they were on capsized and sank in rough seas off an island near Athens, authorities said.

The incident in the early hours was the latest in a series of recent shipwrecks involving migrant boats that have left dozens of people dead or missing in Greek waters.

Nine survivors, all men, were discovered on an uninhabited islet south of the island of Evia and told authorities there had been around 68 people on board the sailboat when it sank.

A cargo ship participating in the search and rescue operation located another survivor on Tuesday afternoon, Greece’s coast guard said, bringing the total to 10.

The coast guard said the men initially rescued reported the boat had set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast.

The rescue operation took place in particularly rough weather, with gale-force winds on Tuesday morning. The area where the boat sank, the Kafireas Strait between the islands of Evia and Andros, is notoriously treacherous.

Images of the operation released by the coast guard showed a small group of people standing on rocks beneath a cliff waving for help, and waves crashing over the coast guard patrol boat during the nighttime search and rescue.

The coast guard said authorities were initially alerted in a distress call early Tuesday about a boat in trouble, but the callers did not provide a location.

A separate maritime rescue operation continued Tuesday afternoon for seven people missing from an inflatable dinghy that capsized Monday with 12 people reportedly on board. Four survivors were rescued Monday from that incident off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Samos, which lies near the Turkish coast. [AP]