(AP) The crew of a Greek coast guard vessel opened fire on a speedboat smuggling migrants — including several children — from neighboring Turkey killing one passenger, Greek authorities said Friday.
A coast guard statement said shots were fired, first into the air and then at the speedboat’s engine “to avert the direct threat to the patrol boat and its crew” after the helmsman rammed the Greek patrol boat in a bid to escape arrest.
When the boat came to a halt, the statement said, the passenger was found fatally wounded, “probably by a bullet.”
The remaining 13 people on the plastic speedboat — 5 children, 7 men and a woman — were unharmed and were taken to the southeast Aegean Sea island of Symi.
