Greece boat disaster: Capsized boat had 100 children in hold - reports
Survivors from a fishing boat that sank off southern Greece in one of Europe's worst migrant disasters say up to 100 children may have been aboard.
At least 78 people have already been confirmed dead in the disaster.
But scores more could still be missing at sea, with reports suggesting that up to 750 people were aboard the vessel.
The country's coastguard has been criticised for not intervening earlier but authorities say their offers of aid were refused.
Rescuers are still scouring the seas off Greece in a massive search operation, as hopes of finding more survivors dwindle.
Shocking accounts of a large number of women and children travelling in the hold of the ship have come via medics who treated the mostly male survivors.
Manolis Makaris, a doctor at Kalamata hospital, told local reporters that after lending his phone to a survivor to enable them to call home the man had spoken of a large number of children in the hold - possibly as many as 100.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify this figure.
But government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris said there were unconfirmed reports that up to 750 people were on the boat.
"We do not know what was in the hold... but we know that several smugglers lock people up to maintain control," he told ERT.
Activist Nawal Soufi was the first to raise the alarm after being contacted by people on the boat on Tuesday morning. She also believes around 750 people were on board.
The boat went down about 80km (50 miles) south-west of Pylos after 02:04 on Wednesday morning local time, according to the Greek coastguard.
A timeline provided by the coastguard said that initial contact was made with the fishing boat at 14:00 (11:00 GMT) and no request for help had been made.
It said the Greek shipping ministry had made repeated contact with the boat and was told it simply wanted to sail on to Italy. A Maltese-flagged ship provided food and water at around 18:00, and another boat provided water three hours after that, it added.
Then at around 01:40 on Wednesday someone on the boat is said to have notified the Greek coastguard that the vessel's engine had malfunctioned.
Shortly afterwards, the boat capsized, taking only 10 to 15 minutes to sink completely. A search and rescue operation was triggered but complicated by strong winds.
A coastguard spokesman told ERT that the boat's engine broke down in the early hours of Wednesday, then people on board started to move around causing it to capsize. He said everyone rescued was male
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65914476
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