ISTANBUL (AP) – Five children and a woman drowned after the Greek Coast Guard intercepted a crowded boat carrying them from Lebanon to Italy and cast them adrift off southwest Turkey, Turkish authorities said late Tuesday.
Two of the dead children were babies, according to a Turkish Coast Guard statement.
In a statement, the Greek Coast Guard said it “categorically denies” the Turkish claims of its “alleged involvement in an alleged pushback incident that resulted in the death of six immigrants in the sea area of Marmaris, within Turkish territorial waters”.
A search for two more missing children and three men continued, while 73 people were rescued from life rafts found floating in the sea between Turkey’s Marmaris and the Greek island of Rhodes, Turkey’s Coast Guard said.
