A collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek coast guard patrol vessel off the eastern Aegean island of Chios has killed at least 15 people, the coast guard said on Tuesday evening, as a search and rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was underway for potentially missing people.

The bodies of 14 people – 11 men and three women – were pulled from the sea the coast guard saidwhile another 25 migrants, including about 11 children, were rescued and transported to a hospital on Chios, as well as two coast guard officers who were injured in the incident.

One of the injured women later died in hospital, the coast guard added, bringing the death toll to at least 15.

The total number of people who were on the speedboat was not immediately known, and a search and rescue operation is underway for potentially missing passengers involving four patrol vessels, an Air Force helicopter and a private boat with divers.

Video footage from a local news site shows at least one person being carried in a blanket from a boat docked on the side of the pier to a waiting Coast Guard vehicle with blue lights flashing, while others appear to be leading two children, one of whom is limping, toward the car.

The Coast Guard did not immediately have additional information on how exactly the collision occurred.

Michalis Giannakos, head of Greece’s union of public hospital workers, said staff at the hospital on Chios were on standby to deal with the sudden influx of injured and were on standby for potentially more people. Speaking on Greece’s Open TV channel, Giannakos said several of the injured needed surgery.

Greece is the main entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Fatal accidents are a common occurrence. Many undertake the short but often dangerous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in the eastern Aegean. But stepped-up patrols and accusations of rejections – swift deportations without allowing asylum claims – by Greek authorities have reduced attempts to cross.

Greece, along with several other European Union countries, is tightening its migration regulations. In December, the European Union overhauled its migration system, including streamlining deportations and increasing detention.

There has been a heated debate on migration among EU members for a long time. Since the surge in asylum seekers and other migrants to Europe a decade ago, the public debate on the issue has shifted, and far-right parties have gained political power. The EU’s migration policy has been tightened, and the number of asylum seekers has fallen from record levels.

The United Nations migration agency warned last month hundreds of migrants may have disappeared at sea or are feared dead following reports of multiple fatal shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean in January.

The International Organization for Migration said it was “deeply concerned” by the reports, which it was working to verify.

“Several ships are believed to have been involved over the past 10 days and preliminary information suggests hundreds of people may be missing at sea or feared dead,” the statement said.

“In just the first weeks of 2026, it is already feared that hundreds of people will be missing,” the IOM statement said, warning that “the final balance could be significantly higher.”

The IOM pointed out that the Central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration corridor in the world, with at least 1,340 people losing their lives there last year alone.

Between 2014 and the end of 2025, more than 33,000 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.