Boat carrying hundreds of migrants towed to port after drifting off Crete

Passengers who had made a distress call overnight told Greek authorities the boat was carrying about 400-500 people.

A fishing boat crammed with hundreds of migrants which lost steering and had been drifting in the Mediterranean Sea south of the Greek island of Crete has been successfully towed to port in Palaiochora, authorities said (Andrew Duke/Alamy/PA)

A fishing boat crammed with hundreds of migrants which lost steering and had been drifting in the Mediterranean Sea south of the Greek island of Crete has been successfully towed to port, Greek authorities said on Tuesday.

The exact number of people on board was not immediately clear as the passengers had not yet disembarked, the coast guard said.