Greek Coast Guard

Six Bulgarians were rescued from a sinking vessel near Lefkada by a ship that responded to a distress call, according to the Greek Coast Guard. The Bulgarians were transferred to safety shortly before their vessel sank, as reported by Dariknews.bg.

The incident took place around 9:00 AM when the speedboat carrying migrants from the Turkish coast did not comply with the visual and audio signals from the Coast Guard.

Instead, the boat made dangerous maneuvers and attempted to ram the Coast Guard vessel, putting the physical safety of both the migrants and the Coast Guard crew members at immediate risk.

Greek authorities on the island of Rhodes are searching for a British tourist who went missing on Wednesday after going for a swim. 

According to reports in Greek media, the man, believed to be 48 years of age, was vacationing on the island with other relatives. On Wednesday he went swimming with his niece to Theologou beach. His niece left earlier and returned to the hotel.

Turkey's coast guard has said that the boat that struck a Turkish fishing vessel earlier on Wednesday was a Greek coast guard vessel and that the fishing vessel was in Turkish waters when the incident happened.

One person was killed and five were injured in the eastern Aegean when the inflatable boat they were in crashed into the side of a Greek Coast Guard vessel that was pursuing them, Greek authorities said on Saturday.

The incident took place in the sea off the island of ​​Symi on Friday night.

 At least two illegal immigrants have died after a rubber boat, carrying 20 people, drifted and was in danger of sinking due to engine failure off the southwestern town of Bodrum.

Thirty-seven migrants disembarked on the island of Crete on Friday morning after being rescued by a commercial vessel. 

They were picked up by a tanker on Thursday evening, approximately 83 miles off the southern coast of Crete. 

Local authorities have transferred them to Iraklio for processing. 

Nine Egyptian men go on trial in southern Greece on Tuesday, accused of causing a shipwreck that killed hundreds of migrants and sent shockwaves through the European Union's border protection and asylum operations.

Some 42 migrants were rescued 27 miles southwest of Crete island in the early hours of Thursday, while there is an ongoing search and rescue operation for three more.

At some point on Wednesday night, the migrants' boat sent a distress call to the Italian authorities, who then informed Greece. 

Two men accused of migrant smuggling were sent to pretrial detention after appearing before a prosecutor in Chania, Crete, on Monday.

They were among a group of 47 migrants, who had been rescued from a boat 15 miles outside Gavdos, Greece's southernmost island, on Wednesday.