Fifteen illegal migrants died in the Aegean Sea off Greece on Tuesday after their boat collided with a coast guard vessel off the island of Chios, the coast guard said. A coastguard official said they spotted a dingy transporting illegal migrants towards Chios, which lies a few miles off the coast of Turkey, and ordered them to turn back.
“The smugglers manoeuvred toward the coast guard vessel causing a collision,” the official told Reuters. The coast guard said 25 illegal migrants were rescued but one of them, a woman, later died. A search and rescue operation was ongoing.
Reuters was unable to independently verify how the collision occurred. The nationality of the illegal migrants was not clear.
Two coast guard officers were injured and transferred to hospital, a second official told Reuters.
