19 drown in refugee boat sinking off Cyprus

NICOSIA: At least 19 refugees drowned and up to 30 were missing Wednesday after their boat sank in the Mediterranean off the north of Cyprus, local security forces said.The boat was carrying 150 people when it went down off the coast of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot-controlled portion of the island, which is only recognised by Ankara.

Over 100 people were rescued in a joint operation by Turkish Cypriot and Turkish coastguards after the boat sank off the village of Gialousa (Yeni Erenkoy in Turkish) on the panhandle Karpas peninsula.

At least 19 drowned and between 25 and 30 were still missing, the Turkish Cypriot security forces (GKK) said in a statement. One severely wounded victim was taken by helicopter to Cyprus, the GKK added.

Search efforts were under way to recover the missing with commercial vessels also taking part, reports said.Turkey’s DHA news agency said that the refugees were Syrians seeking to go to Europe but this had yet to be confirmed. Cyprus, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Syria’s coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey, Greece and Italy although asylum applications have risen sharply.