Bodies of four migrants recovered after boat sinks between Turkey and Greece

A boat carrying an unknown number of migrants from Turkey to Greece sank on Thursday morning off Samos in the Aegean Sea, leaving four passengers dead. 

According to reports, two children and two women died in the incident. 

The coast guard rescued 16 survivors from the boat which sank after crashing into rocks. Police did not however disclose the nationalities of the migrants involved.

This was the second deadly shipwreck to take place off the eastern Aegean island this week, after another boat sank in the area on Monday, causing the death of another six children and two women.  

In Monday’s incident, 39 people survived, though it was also unclear how many passengers were on the boat when it set sail from Turkey.

Police have not yet disclosed the nationalities of the casualties. 

Greece has seen a 25 percent increase this year in the number of migrants arriving, with a 30 percent increase alone to Rhodes and the southeast Aegean, according to the migration ministry.

Several similar incidents have occurred in past weeks, the last in early November when four people died near the island of Rhodes.

In late October, two people died near the island of Samos. Four more, including two infants, were lost near the island of Kos a few days earlier, Greece’s media reported.