Istanbul, Jan 12 (AFP) Eleven migrants died on Saturday, including eight children, when their vessel sank in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey, state news agency Anadolu reported.

The boat sank off Cesme, a popular tourist resort in western Turkey opposite the Greek island of Chios, Anadolu said, adding that eight others were rescued.

The nationality of the victims was not yet known.

The sinking comes just hours after another boat sank in the Aegean near to the Greek island of Paxi leaving at least 12 dead.

Turkey has taken in around four million migrants and refugees, the majority of them Syrians, and is an important transit country for those fleeing conflicts and seeking to reach Europe largely via Greece.

An agreement reached in March 2016 between Ankara and the European Union succeeded in considerably reducing the number of people arriving on the five islands closest to Turkey. (AFP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)