ATHENS, Greece — A yacht and a dinghy crammed with immigrants trying to enter Greece capsized Monday in the eastern Aegean Sea, leaving at least 22 dead, including four children, and potentially several more missing in the third such fatal accident in the country this year.
The vessels had been trying to enter Greece illegally when they overturned before dawn off the coast of the island of Samos near the Turkish coast. It was not immediately clear what caused the overloaded craft to capsize.
The Greek coast guard said 36 people — 32 men, three women and a child — were rescued, and two of them, a man and a child, were airlifted to a hospital on the mainland.
Coast guard officials recovered the bodies of two women, a man and a boy from the sea, and later found a further 18 bodies, including three children, inside the yacht after it was towed to Samos.
The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately known.