At least 14 people died after an inflatable boat carrying migrants collided with a Turkish coast guard vessel off Turkey’s southern province of Antalya on Monday (March 9), authorities have announced.

According to a statement from the coast guard, the incident occurred off the coast of the Finike district. Turkish officials said the high-speed boat was detected early Monday and ignored repeated warnings to stop.

The coast guard said the boat tried to flee before crashing into a coast guard patrol boat. Rescue teams recovered 14 bodies following the collision. Authorities said six migrants and one Turkish national were rescued from the water. The statement added that 15 other people continued toward shore in the same boat and were detained after reaching land.

The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Antalya Province Governor Hulusi Sahin as saying that the vessel was carrying Afghan nationals, and attempted maneuvers at high-speed to escape the coast guard boats. The coast guard, however, did not immediately release further details about the identities or nationalities of the migrants, and the circumstances surrounding the attempted escape were not immediately clear.

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Coast guard interceptions can be fatal

The tragedy is not the first fatal collision involving a migrant boat and the Turkish coast guard. In September last year, five people were killed when a boat carrying migrant passengers collided with a Turkish coast guard vessel off northwest Turkey.

Local reports, citing the governorate of Balıkesir, said the migrant boat had been traveling at high speed when a coast guard vessel conducting routine sea patrols to monitor irregular migration approached it. The two vessels then reportedly collided, causing several passengers to fall overboard. In addition to the five fatalities, one person was reported to have been seriously injured.

With Reuters