Eight people are missing after a wooden boat carrying migrants or refugees attempting to reach the Aegean island of Lesbos sank after colliding with a patrol boat during a rescue operation.

A ship crammed with thousands of mostly Syrian refugees docked in Greece’s main port of Piraeus, after the government said it was stepping up efforts to ease pressure on an eastern island being overwhelmed by new arrivals.

The sand-buried hull of a 2,300 year-old cargo ship thought to have been ferrying wine from the Aegean island of Chios when it sank off Cyprus is to be excavated.