Pylos

At least 350 Pakistanis were on an overloaded boat that capsized and sank in open seas off Greece last week, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday.

The boat with a capacity of 400 people had over 700 people on board, he told the country's parliament, adding that a total of 281 Pakistani families had contacted the government to seek help.

Nine suspected people smugglers were granted on Monday 24 hours to prepare their testimony over accusations that they captained the fishing trawler that sank off the southern coast of Greece last week, killing 78 and leaving hundreds of others presumed dead.

Their attorneys asked for the brief extension to study the case file. 

Sixty-eight migrants found on Monday on a sailboat northwest of the coast of the small island of Leros, in southeastern Greece, were rescued and transferred to the island, state-run broadcaster ERT reported.

The migrants were picked up by a merchant ship that was sailing nearby and then by the Coast Guard that transferred them to Leros.

Twelve Pakistanis were among survivors from a boat packed with migrants that capsized off the coast of Greece this week, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the government was unable so far to verify the number of Pakistanis who died, or their identities.

Search operations continued on Saturday in the sea region 47 nautical miles southwest of the Greek town of Pylos, southwestern Peloponnese, where a fishing boat carrying migrants sunk on Wednesday, killing at least 78 people.

A Greek navy frigate, another three ships sailing by and a Hellenic Coast Guard helicopter are taking part in the operations.

Italy on Friday alerted Greece to a vessel holding dozens of migrants sailing off the southern coastal town of Pylos, two sources said, just two days after an overcrowded fishing boat sank nearby killing at least 78 people.

A Syrian teenager who survived a shipwreck that killed at least 78 people was emotionally reunited with his elder brother on Friday, but there was no news for other relatives gathering in the southern Greek city of Kalamata to search for loved ones.

The shipwreck that killed at least 79 people in international waters off Greece happened in search and rescue waters under Greek responsibility, Italy's interior minister said on Thursday.

"The event occurred, and was confined within, the Greek search and rescue area, under the specific responsibility of that country", Minister Matteo Piantedosi told Italy's SkyTG24 TV channel.

Rescuers scoured seas off Greece on Thursday in a massive search operation, as hopes dwindled of finding survivors of a shipwreck that killed at least 78 migrants in one of Europe's deadliest such disasters in recent years.

In one of the greatest tragedies of its kind this year, a fishing boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank off the southern coast of Greece on Wednesday, leaving at least 79 people dead and many more missing. Initial reports suggested there could have been some 500 people on board from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria.