One dead in incident involving migrant boat off Greek island

One woman died and another two were rescued from the sea off the eastern Greek island of Lesvos Friday, in an incident involving an inflatable dinghy carrying Somali migrants.

Greece's coast guard said 24 migrants who were located safe on shore early Friday told authorities that three women in their party had fallen into the sea as the boat approached Lesbos, and were still missing.

Patrol boats and a helicopter combed the area, and several hours later found two women alive in the water and the body of a third, a coast guard statement said.

The migrants told authorities they were from Somalia and had crossed over from the nearby Turkish coast.

Rescuers continued to search the area for traces of a migrant-trafficker thought to have been on the boat and to have also ended up in the water.

It was not immediately clear how the women fell into the sea, how far offshore the accident occurred and whether the dinghy continued towards the island after the women went overboard. The coast guard said the boat was not found on the coast.

[AP]