MADRID (AP) — About 50 migrants were missing after their boat overturned some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Spain’s Canary Island of El Hierro in the Atlantic Ocean, Spanish media reported Monday.
The national marine rescue service said one of its helicopters rescued nine people who were found clinging to the boat Monday morning following a warning call from a merchant vessel in the area.
State news agency Efe said that once transferred to El Hierro airport, the rescued migrants reported that 60 of them had set sail nine days ago and that the open-topped wooden boat ran into problems Saturday.
The rescue service was unable to say how many people may have been on the boat and no one was available to comment at Civil Guard police offices in the Canary Island capital of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Efe said the migrants were of sub-Saharan origin. There were no details on which country they had sailed from.
Yvette Fielding says her Most Haunted co
Princess Anne says she's 'honoured' as she has a train named after her at London Paddington station
Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
Rita Ora shows off her glamorous sense of style in a black cape as she steps out in New York
Alexandre Pantoja to defend flyweight title in native Brazil against Steve Erceg
Sanctions and a hobbled economy pull the rug out from under Iran's traditional carpet weavers
Pentagon vows to keep weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces a renewed assault by Russia
Who is Jacob Zuma, the former South African president disqualified from next week's election?
Tottenham's Champions League hopes hit further by 2