86 people are said to have drowned in a boat accident near Syria – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country

This is reported by state TV in Syria on Saturday morning, according to Reuters. 20 survivors will also be admitted to the hospital in the Syrian city of Tartus, writes the BBC. The governing authorities in Syria say the boat contained between 120 and 150 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian nationals. 45 of the boat passengers must have been children, according to Reuters. The search continues in the water on Saturday morning. The boat sank on Thursday, but it is still unknown what caused the accident. Mourners pray with one of the deceased after the accident. Photo: FATHI AL-MASRI / AFP Ferda should have started in the city of Minyeh, which is close to the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, before the accident happened near the Syrian island of Awad, the authorities further said. They believe the boat was on its way to Cyprus. The Syrian news agency Sana reports that the authorities will send the unnamed dead people to the border, so that they can be identified by the Red Cross in Lebanon. – Traveled in a small wooden boat It is not unknown that boats loaded with migrants are exposed to accidents on the way away from Lebanon, which houses around 1.5 million Syrians, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At the same time, the country has been in a major economic crisis for the past three years, which is one of the biggest the world has ever seen. with high poverty rates among the 6.5 million who live there. The number of people who have left or tried to leave the country at sea was almost twice as high in 2021 as the year before, the High Commissioner further told Reuters. Nevertheless, this is the highest death toll ever reported from one of these boat accidents. Lebanese relatives are waiting to hear the identity of those who have drowned. Photo: FATHI AL-MASRI / AFP The Lebanese Minister of Transport, Ali Hamieh, tells Reuters that it is a “very small” wooden boat that sank off the Syrian coast. Hamieh says that such trips happen almost every day, under the auspices of people who do not care about the safety of those being transported. – We believe that the chance of finding more survivors is small at this time, said the transport minister on Friday. He says he has been informed by the Syrian authorities that there are five or six Lebanese among the survivors.



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