One dead, one missing as migrant boat capsizes in Turkey's west

BODRUM – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A Turkish captain has died and a migrant reported missing after a migrant speedboat car-rying a total of 13 people capsized off the coast of the resort town of Bodrum early June 27 in an attempt to illegally cross to the Greek island of Kalymnos.

The dead body of the captain, who was said to be 30 years old, and 11 survivors of the boat were found after an eyewitness on a passing yacht informed the Turkish Coast Guard of “some weary-looking people in the sea with life vests” at around 12 p.m. on June 27.

The six-meter-long speedboat carrying the captain and a total of 12 Syrian and Iraqi mi-grants capsized due to heavy gusts near Çatalada, an Aegean island three miles off Bodrum, after it headed at around 2 a.m. from the Turgutreis neighborhood of Bodrum, a resort town in the western province of Muğla.

Eleven migrants were saved in multiple searches of the boat by the Coast Guard boats. A migrant among the survivors was taken to the Bodrum State Hospital for treatment after suffering blackout due to hyperthermia.
The search for the missing migrant is continuing.