At least 78 people died and more than 100 were rescued after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Peloponnese peninsula, in southern GreeceThe Coast Guard reported this on Wednesday.

The boat, carrying “hundreds” of migrants according to a Greek Ministry of Migration source, sank in international waters about 54 miles off the Greek coast. During a major rescue operation complicated by high winds 104 people were rescued. Four of them have been taken by helicopter in serious condition to a hospital in Kalamata, in the south of the Peloponnese.

The death toll could rise and has risen from 17 at an initial estimate by the Coast Guard to 78 at the latest.

Greek television channels showed survivors, with gray blankets on their backs and hygienic masks on their faces, descending from a yacht marked Georgetown, the capital of the Cayman Islands. The Greek authorities specified that at the time of the shipwreck none of those on board, whose nationality has not been disclosed, had a life jacket.

A surveillance plane from the European agency Frontex discovered the ship on Tuesday afternoon, but the passengers “refused help”, according to an earlier statement from the Greek port authorities.

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major rescue operation

Patrols from the Coast Guard took part in the rescue operation a Greek Navy frigate, and an Air Force plane and helicopter, as well as six ships that were nearby.

“A major rescue operation was launched very early on Wednesday at Pylos after a fishing boat with a large number of migrants on board capsized,” the Greek coastguard said.

Everything indicates that the ship left Libya for Italy, the authorities said.

Also on Wednesday, an ailing sailing ship with about 80 migrants on board was rescued off the coast of Crete and towed by coastguards to the southern Cretan port of Kaloi Limenes, off the coast of Libya, Greek police said.

Greece, Italy and Spain have been the main destinations for tens of thousands of people trying to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East.

With a long maritime border, Greece is a regular crossing point for migrants from neighboring Turkey and there are increasing attempts to enter via routes near the Cyclades and Peloponnese to evade patrols in the Aegean Sea further north, the scene of countless shipwrecks, often deadly.

Greece is often accused of “illegally” refusing migrant boats.