A boat carrying immigrants trying to cross illegally into the Greek island of Lesvos, sank off Ayvacık, district of Çanakkale, a western province of Turkiye.

Four of the refugees on board the boat, including 3 women and an infant have lost their lives while Turkish Cost Guards rescued 11 other irregular immigrants.

"On 26 March 2019 at 03.50 a.m., upon detecting that a fiber boat including some irregular migrants sank off the coast of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district/1.7 nautical miles south of Behramkale, 5 CG boats and 1 CG helicopter were dispatched immediately to the area," said Turkish Cost Guards in a statement.

"As a result of the SAR operation, 11 irregular migrants were rescued alive, 4 dead bodies (3 women and 1 baby) were recovered from the sea," the statement read.

After learning that the migrants were 15 people in total according to their statements, SAR operation was ended.

ILKHA