ATHENS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A nine-year-old girl died while 24 people were rescued after a boat carrying refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece sank in the Mediterranean Sea, the Greek Coast Guard said Thursday.
A rescue operation is underway off Kastellorizo Island, and the total number of passengers aboard the boat is still not clear, according to the Greek national news agency AMNA.
The girl, together with her mother and three other people, was found by a European border agency Frontex vessel after the accident. She died in local hospital.
Greek Coast Guard vessels also found 20 people from the boat on a rocky coast.
It was the first casualty reported in Greece involving a refugee boat from Turkey for months.
Since the launch of the EU-Turkey agreement in March 2016 to stem the refugee influx to Europe, the number of people risking their lives to cross the Aegean Sea has been dramatically reduced.
The Greek authorities have rescued more than 100,000 people in the waters from early 2015 until the winter of 2016 when more than one million refugees and migrants landed on Greece's shores on boats from Turkey. During the period, hundreds of refugees died off the coast of Greece after their usually over-loaded vessels capsized or sunk.
