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| Boat carrying illegal immigrants sinks off Turkish coast | Boat carrying illegal immigrants sinks off Turkish coast |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Scores of people are feared to have drowned after a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Turkey. | Scores of people are feared to have drowned after a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Turkey. |
| Turkish news channels reported that 58 people had died in the incident. Tahsin Kurtbeyoglu, the governor of Menderes, a coastal district in Izmir province, told state television TRT that 39 people had died but that he expected the death toll to rise. | Turkish news channels reported that 58 people had died in the incident. Tahsin Kurtbeyoglu, the governor of Menderes, a coastal district in Izmir province, told state television TRT that 39 people had died but that he expected the death toll to rise. |
| Dozens of survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to shore, only 50 metres (160ft) away. | Dozens of survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to shore, only 50 metres (160ft) away. |
| The survivors say people had been trapped below the deck of the submerged vessel and many on board were women and children. The group had previously made their way to hotels in the city of Izmir, where smugglers had agreed to take them to Britain. | The survivors say people had been trapped below the deck of the submerged vessel and many on board were women and children. The group had previously made their way to hotels in the city of Izmir, where smugglers had agreed to take them to Britain. |
| The television station reported that authorities had arrested two Turkish suspects over the operation. | |
| It was not immediately clear when the boat sank, but many such vessels carrying illegal immigrants make the journey at night to avoid detection by authorities. | |
| Television footage showed several rescue vessels near the dim outline of the submerged boat, which lay just below the surface of the water. Ambulances waited at the top of a cliff, but there were no indications that anyone else had survived. | |
| Illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa have long sought to reach Europe by passing through Turkey, and their desperate efforts have occasionally ended in disaster. Each year, thousands try to sail to Greek islands from Turkish soil in rickety boats. | |
| Turkey is now hosting 80,000 Syrians who have fled the civil war in their country, with most staying in camps near the border. Some countries are concerned that larger numbers of Syrians could try to reach Europe illegally. Greece said in July that it was quadrupling the number of guards at its border with Turkey and boosting other defences in part because of worries about a potential influx. |