Two dead after migrant boat sinks off Turkey coast

Two people died on Monday after a boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey's southwestern coast, the Turkish coastguard said.

Seventeen others were rescued after the boat ran into trouble 50 metres off the coast of Bodrum district in Muğla province, it said in a statement.

Intially 20 people were taken to hospital including three who managed to reach the shore without assistance but two later died.

Search and rescue efforts were continuing, the coastguard said. The boat, believed to be carrying nearly 30 people, had been on its way to the Greek island of Kos, NTV reported.

Officials did not give details of the migrants' nationalities.

Turkey became one of the main launch points for more than a million migrants taking the sea route to EU territory in 2015, many fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

The influx of migrants was drastically curtailed by a 2016 accord between Ankara and the EU after hundreds died crossing to Greek islands a few miles off the Turkish shore.

Mediterranean arrivals to the bloc, including refugees making the longer and more perilous crossing from North Africa to Italy, totaled 172,301 in 2017, down from 362,753 in 2016 and 1,015,078 in 2015, according to United Nations data.