Twelve migrants died Monday attempting to cross the Aegean Sea, including six people whose bodies were found after their boat collided with a police vessel, authorities said.

A baby and four women were among six people who died off the island of Lesbos on Monday following the collision, a coast guard official told AFP.

The other six dead — five men and a woman — were on a small boat that capsized off the island of Samos, the coast guard added. Another 14 people from the boat, one of them a presumed Iranian organiser, were rescued.

The coast guard official said that in the incident off Lesbos, “a speedboat carrying migrants collided with the port side of a police patrol vessel”. The official said eight people were rescued.

The Aegean is a much-used route for migrants crossing from Turkey and hoping to reach Europe. There have been many deaths.

One person died and 25 remained missing after a boat filled with migrants sank off the island of Gavdos, near Crete in September.

AFP