Turkey: Boat sinks, leave 21 migrants dead, 9 missing on Black Sea coast

Istanbul: In an incident at Turkey’s Black Sea coast, a fishing boat sank on Friday killing at least 21 people and leaving up to nine others missing, the Turkish coast guard said.

At least 40 migrants were rescued by coast guard boats and commercial ships, the Coast Guard Command said. The fishing vessel sank just before dawn off the coast of Kefken, 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Istanbul, he added.

No information about migrants’ nationalities has been found or where they headed to. Migrants, however, are increasingly trying to cross the Black Sea from Turkey to reach Romania, a European Union nation, reports HT.

Ambulances and medical teams carried out medical checks. Two injured survivors were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital by helicopter, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. A pregnant woman miscarried during the tragedy, it added.

The coast guard plane, a helicopter, three vessels as well as five commercial ships joined the search and rescue effort for the migrants who are still unaccounted for, the coast guard said.

Turkish officials say more than 830 migrants were caught at sea along with 10 suspected smugglers while trying to cross the Black Sea in seven separate incidents between Aug. 13 and Sept. 9.