Hundreds feared dead as search continues for missing migrants after fishing boat sinks off Greece
A massive search operation is continuing for “hundreds” of missing migrants after at least 78 drowned when a fishing boat sank off the coast of Greece.
Officials said 104 survivors were rescued after the vessel capsized about 50 miles from the southern coastal town of Pylos.
But charity Alarm Phone, which operates a network supporting rescue operations and received frantic calls from some of those on board, said up to 750 people may have been on the vessel.
Greek officials said the boat got into difficulties when its engine stopped and it began veering from side to side.
It then capsized and sank at around 2am on Wednesday.
Shortly beforehand, Alarm Phone said it spoke to someone on board who said: “The captain left on a small boat. Please, any solution.”
They also pleaded for food and water, and said the vessel had stopped moving, according to the charity.
A survivor being cared for by medical staff after being brought ashore in Kalamata, Greece
The search for survivors continued on Thursday morning and is expected to last until at least Friday, Greek authorities said.
Six coastguard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, an air force helicopter, several private vessels and a drone from the European Union border protection agency, Frontex, are taking part in the operation.
Officials said it was unlikely the sunken boat would be recovered because the area of international waters is one of the deepest in the Mediterranean.
Three days of national mourning have been declared by the Greek government.
But Alarm Phone accused the Greek and other European authorities of failing to launch a rescue operation before the boat went down, despite being “well aware of this overcrowded and unseaworthy vessel”.
The Greek coastguard denied the claim and said those on board “refused our assistance because they wanted to go to Italy”.
Spokesperson Nikos Alexiou added that they still stayed nearby “in case it needed our assistance which they had refused”.
Survivors were brought to the port city of Kalamata by the coastguard early on Thursday. Many are being treated for conditions including hypothermia and dehydration.
Aerial pictures released by the Greek coastguard showed the 20 to 30-metre-long boat hours before it sank.
Dozens of people on the upper and lower decks were seen looking up, some with arms outstretched.
Witnesses said many more women and children were below in the hold, according to local reports.
Greek authorities, who initially said 79 people had died before later revising the figure down to 78, said they could not confirm how many people were on board.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration said initial reports suggested there were up to 400 people on the vessel.
The boat is thought to have set off from the Libyan port of Tobruk and was heading to Italy.
Greek authorities said most of the migrants were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan.
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It comes as Libyan authorities launch a major crackdown on migrants, with several thousand – including Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese and Pakistanis – detained.
Many Egyptians have been deported to their home country through a land crossing point.
The region is one of the main routes into Europe for refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The UN said there have been more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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