Rescuers search for missing migrants after boat sinks off Canary Islands, 9 dead
Rescuers were able to pick up 27 of 84 migrants who were trying to reach the Spanish coast on Saturday
Patrol boats and helicopters searched on Sunday for about 48 migrants missing since their boat sank near the Spanish island of El Hierro in what threatens to be the deadliest such incident in 30 years of crossings from Africa to the Canary Islands.
Nine people, one of them a child, have been confirmed dead after their boat sank in the early hours of Saturday morning, emergency and rescue services said.
Rescuers were able to pick up 27 of 84 migrants who were trying to reach the Spanish coast on Saturday. Three patrol boats and three helicopters were taking part in the renewed search on Sunday, according to a Spanish coastguard spokesman.
The migrants were from Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, Spanish authorities said.
The emergency services received a call on Saturday shortly after midnight from the boat, which was located around four miles east of El Hierro. It sank during the rescue, they said.
Wind and poor visibility made the rescue extremely difficult.
“After what happened yesterday and if the forecast for the arrival of the migrant boats happens, then it will be the biggest humanitarian crisis to happen to the Canary Islands in 30 years,” Candelaria Delgado of the Canary Islands government, told reporters on Sunday.
