A human tragedy occurred at down at the port of Souda when evacuees from Libya jumped from the ferry “Ionian King” into the sea. According to Greek media, that at least 3 evacuees lost their lives, while 16 are reportedly still missing.There is a search and rescue operation on the way to locate those missing. 24 people have been taken to the hospital.
Reports have it that reports that the tragedy occurred at 4:00 a.m. dawn when the Ionian King, carrying foreign nationals from Libya, was approaching the port in near Chania. The majority of them are from Bangladesh. 46 people allegedly jumped into the sea. 30 had managed to swim to the coast.
The Goast Guard managed to pick some from the sea. Two died immediately, one while on the way to hospital.
The Cyprus-flagged ship was carrying a total of 1280 passengers.
There are reports that the evacuees jumped into the sea to avoid repatriation to Bangladesh. The rescued apparently do not speak English, whihc makes difficult to understand what happened. There has been no official announcement from the Greek Authorities, so far.
…. to be continued
