Enlarge image
Greek Coast Guard helicopter in the Aegean Sea: at least 20 people missing
Photo: HELLENIC COAST GUARD / AFP
At least four migrants died when a rubber dinghy crashed into a reef near the Greek island of Leros on Tuesday.
Up to 20 other people are missing, a spokeswoman for the Greek coast guard said on Tuesday.
There were believed to be 41 people on board the boat, only 16 have been rescued so far.
Four children and a woman died in a boat accident off the Greek island of Lesbos further north on Sunday.
After the boat accident on Tuesday, rescue work was carried out by emergency services on land, at sea and in the air.
However, these would be hampered by strong winds, said the spokeswoman for the coast guard.
It is already the second boat accident off the Greek Leros within a few days.
A refugee boat had already sunk in stormy winds on Sunday.
Five people, including four children, died.
36 people could be rescued from the water or reach the coast of the Greek holiday island of Leros with their own strength.
Most of them came from African countries.
The two Greek islands of Leros and Lesvos are each only a few nautical miles away from the Turkish coast.
In the past few weeks, the number of crossings from Turkey to Greece on unsafe and overcrowded boats had increased significantly, despite the rough winter sea.
Many refugees try to get from Turkey to Greece and thus to the EU in unseaworthy boats.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2,246 people fleeing war and poverty in their home countries have died in the eastern Mediterranean since 2014.
fin/dpa/AFP
