Syrian survivor Fedi, 18, right, one of 104 people who were rescued from the Aegean Sea after their fishing boat crammed with migrants sank, reacts as he reunites with his brother Mohammad, who came from Italy to meet him, at the port of Kalamata, Greece, Friday, June 16, 2023. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's coast guard defended its actions Friday in the deadly sinking of a ship carrying hundreds of migrants off the country's south coast, indicating that a 72-hour rescue operation would be extended.
Patrol boats and a helicopter continued to scour the area where the fishing vessel packed with hundreds of people capsized and sank early Wednesday. Rescuers pulled 104 people from the water and later recovered 78 bodies, but the rescue operation has failed to locate any more since late Wednesday.
Several hundred others are believed to have gone down with the vessel, which sank while traveling across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.
The rescue operation has created political controversy as Greece heads to a general election on June 25, and triggered large protests in Athens that turned violent late Thursday and led to 21 arrests.
Left-wing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras visited survivors and said the coast guard should have towed the ship to safety as it approached Greek waters -- a concern echoed by human rights organizations.
"The Greek government had specific responsibilities toward every passenger on the vessel, which was clearly in distress," Adriana Tidona of Amnesty International said. "This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, all the more so because it was entirely preventable."
Coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou said the vessel was being followed by the coast guard and private vessels in international waters before it sank and denied reports citing survivors that a patrol boat had tried to tow the fishing boat.
He said repeated offers of assistance were rejected in radio communications with the vessel as well as calls made over a loudspeaker.
A judicial investigation is underway into the causes of the sinking. Greek officials say the vessel capsized minutes after it lost power, speculating that panic among the passengers may have caused the boat to list and capsize.
The trawler may have carried as many as 750 passengers, according to the International Organization for Migration, the U.N. migration agency.
Most of the survivors were being moved Friday from a storage hangar at the southern port of Kalamata, where relatives also gathered to look for loved ones, to migrant shelters near Athens.
Nine people - all men from Egypt, ranging in age from 20 to 40 - were arrested and detained on allegations of people smuggling and participating in a criminal enterprise. Twenty-seven of the survivors remain hospitalized, health officials said.
Alexiou, citing survivor accounts, said passengers in the hold of the fishing boat included woman and children but that the number of missing, believed to be in the hundreds, remained unclear.
Officials at a state-run morgue outside Athens photographed the faces of the victims and gathered DNA samples to start the identification process.
Follow AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Survivors of latest tragical shipwreck prepare to board a bus to transfer to Athens at the port of Kalamata, Greece, Friday, June 16, 2023. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
Survivors of a shipwreck wait to board a bus to transfer to Athens at the port of Kalamata, Greece, Friday, June 16, 2023. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
Survivors of latest tragical shipwreck board a bus to transfer to Athens at the port of Kalamata, Greece, June 16, 2023. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
A survivor of latest tragical shipwreck looks out from a bus that will transfer him to Athens with other migrants and refugees at the port of Kalamata, Greece, Friday, June 16, 2023. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
A Greek coast guard vessel is docked at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, on Thursday, June 15, 2023. A fishing boat crammed to the gunwales with migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank Wednesday June 14 off the coast of Greece, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Survivors of a shipwreck speak with Red Cross volunteers outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, Thursday, June 15, 2023. A fishing boat crammed to the gunwales with migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank Wednesday June 14 off the coast of Greece, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Kassem Abo Zeed holds up a photograph with his wife, Ezra, who is missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants sank off southern Greece, in the southern port city of Kalamata, Thursday, June 15, 2023. Abo Zeed traveled from Hamburg, Germany, to try and find his wife and her missing brother, Abdullah Aoun. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)