At least 77 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, Syria's health minister said Friday, in one of the deadliest such shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.
"Seventy-seven people have died," Syria's Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash told state television from Al-Basel hospital in Tartus, where he said 20 survivors were being treated, including eight in critical condition.
Tartus is the southernmost of Syria's main ports, and lies some 50 kilometers north of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, where the migrants had boarded.
"We are covering a large area that extends along the entire Syrian coast," he said, adding that high waves were hampering their efforts.
Rana Merhi of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said identified bodies would be transported to a border crossing to be handed over to the Lebanese Red Cross.
to identify the dead," said Ahmed Ammar, a Tartus health official.
Other rescuers were pictured searching for survivors along the coast of Tartus.
Since 2020, Lebanon has seen a spike in the number of migrants using its shores to attempt the perilous crossing in jam-packed boats to reach Europe.
They had reportedly boarded from Tripoli in Lebanon in an attempt to reach Italy.
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