Fourteen migrants dead off Greece after boat collision with coast guard

Fourteen migrants ​died in the Aegean Sea off Greece on Tuesday after their boat collided with a coast guard vessel off the island of Chios, the coast guard

said.



A coastguard official said they spotted a dingy transporting migrants towards Chios, which lies a few miles off the coast of Turkey, and ordered them to turn back.



"The smugglers manoeuvred toward the coast guard vessel causing a collision ," the official told Reuters.



Reuters was unable to independently verify how exactly the collision occurred. The nationality of the migrants was not clear.



Two coast guard officers were injured and transferred to hospital and 24 migrants have been rescued, a second official told Reuters. Witnesses reported that about 30-35 people were on board, a government official said.