The death toll of the shipwreck of a fishing boat off Pylos rose to at least 78 on Thursday, authorities said. At least 78 bodies have been recovered, while survivors number 104. The rescued are men, aged 16-40. They mainly experienced hypothermia, fainting episodes, hypoglycemic episodes and pneumonia.
The full number of passengers remains unknown. The boat had sailed off from Tobruk (Libya) before sinking in international waters 47 nautical miles off the city of Pylos on the southwest coast of the Peloponnese.
According to public broadcaster ERT, the rescue teams informed the doctors in the Kalamata hospital that there were about 100 children in the holds of the boat.
The cardiologist, Director of the Cardiology Clinic of the Kalamata Hospital and secretary of the hospital doctors of Messinia, Manolis Makaris, stated that some of the rescued patients said that around 750 people were on board the ship, among them approximately 50-100 children.
30 refugees and migrants at the Kalamata hospital
According to Makaris, 30 refugees and migrants are currently being treated at the Kalamata hospital, whose condition is characterized as relatively good.
People were shocked
“People were shocked, we were looking at their medical issue, we were trying to communicate through a mobile app because they didn’t speak any other language than Arabic, so we were asking them to give us some information through the app if they are in pain, if they are short of breath, how they feel, if they feel cold. Some had hypothermia, but overall their condition is stable and controlled,” Makaris said, adding that interpreters who know Arabic are urgently needed to be sent to communicate with people.
No arrests
The representative of the Coast Guard, Nikos Alexiou, told naftemporiki.gr that a pre-investigation procedure is underway, clarifying that so far “there is no specific number of arrests of people alleged to be the traffickers of the undocumented migrants who were on board the fatal fishing boat.”
