At least five children are among the 22 people confirmed dead in the sinking of a boat carrying migrants, Greece’s coastguard said.
A search and rescue operation continued on Thursday morning for a further 34 people still reported missing.
Only 12 people, all men, have been found alive since the boat sank in the treacherous waters between the islands of Evia and Andros, east of the Greek capital, in the early hours of Tuesday.
The initial nine survivors were found on rocks on an uninhabited islet and told authorities they had been on a sailboat – carrying about 68 people – which set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast.
They said the boat capsized and went down in rough seas.
An initial rescue operation was conducted in gale-force winds in the Kafireas Strait between the two islands, an area notorious for rough seas.
A total of 22 bodies have been retrieved from the sea, including five children — three boys and two girls — and six women, the coastguard said on Thursday.
The sinking was the latest in a series of recent deadly shipwrecks of boats carrying migrants through Greek seas.
A separate search and rescue operation was being conducted in the eastern Aegean off the island of Samos, which lies near the Turkish coast, for seven people still missing after a dinghy reportedly carrying 12 people capsized on Monday.
Four people, who the coastguard said were all Palestinians, were rescued on Monday and a body was recovered on Tuesday.
Thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East attempt to enter the European Union through Greece each year.
Most make the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in often unseaworthy inflatable dinghies. Others opt to attempt to circumvent Greece in overcrowded sailboats and yachts heading straight to Italy.
At least 27 people drowned in two separate shipwrecks last month. In one, 18 people died when a boat which had set sail from Turkey sank off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos. In the other, a yacht carrying about 100 people sank in a gale, killing at least nine and leaving six others missing.
