Greece migrant boat capsizes leaving 79 dead and up to 500 missing

Alarm Phone, an emergency helpline for migrants in trouble at sea, said the coastguard was "aware of the ship being in distress for hours before any help was sent", adding that authorities "had been informed by different sources" that the boat was in trouble.

The coastguard said it was first made aware of the boat when it was spotted in international waters late on Tuesday by a EU border agency aircraft.

Working off a timeline provided by the shipping ministry, Greek public broadcaster ERT said that no-one on board was believed to be wearing a life jacket and when the coastguard made contact with the boat it was rebuffed.

Greek authorities claim to have made contact with the boat several times via satellite phone but were repeatedly told: “We want nothing more than to go on to Italy.”

An individual on board the fishing vessel then notified the coastguard about an engine malfunction at 1:40am (11.40pm GMT Tuesday).

Soon after, the boat capsized and became fully submerged after just 10 to 15 minutes, going down in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean that can descend to 17,000 feet (5,200 metres).

Dozens of survivors were able to board a super yacht, the Mayan Queen IV, which happened to be in the area.

The boat is thought to have departed the Tobruk area of Libya, destined for Italy where the majority of the 70,000 refugees and migrants arriving in Europe this year have landed.

Earlier in the afternoon, the vessel was approached by a Maltese cargo ship that supplied some food and water.

Coastguard Cpt Nikolaos Alexiou told state ERT TV that the migrants, who were packed onto the deck of the boat, had “categorically refused any help.”

Alexiou said: “It’s one of the biggest (such) operations ever in the Mediterranean, we won’t stop looking.”

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IMO) suggested there were up to 400 people on board, while AP report a network of activists as quoting the figure closer to 750.

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where survivors were taken, said his information indicated there were “more than 500 people” on board.

Most of those on board are believed to be men in their 20s, with the 104 people including Egyptians, Syrians, Pankistanis, Afghans, and Palestinians.

Activist group Alarm Phone conject that the vessel may have been scared to encounter Greek authorities due to awareness of the country's "horrible and systematic pushback practices".

Gianluca Rocco, head of the Greek section of IOM, said: “We are witnessing one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean, and the numbers announced by the authorities are devastating.

“This situation reinforces the urgency for concrete, comprehensive action from states to save lives at sea and reduce perilous journeys by expanding safe and regular pathways to migration.”

The IOM has recorded over 21,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014.

In February this year, a wooden boat carrying migrants capsized near Cutro, in the region of Calabria in southern Italy, killing at least 94 people.

The Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwreck in living memory occurred on April 18, 2015, when an overcrowded fishing boat crashed into a freighter off the coast of Libya, from which forensic experts concluded that nearly 1,100 people lost their lives.