Aegean

"How could I go with him in that boat?" she asks herself, remembering how they crossed the Aegean Sea with 60 others, packed in a small boat.

But the sizable Balkan territory once encompassed much of modern Bulgaria and parts of northern Greece and European Turkey, between the Black Sea and the Aegean.

The South Aegean Regional Fire Department has been placed on general alert and rescue teams have been dispatched, with crews standing watch by large yellow medical tents on the island.

At least eight people - including a child - have drowned after a speedboat carrying migrants capsized in the Aegean Sea during a chase with a Greek patrol vessel.

Around 40 people were rescued by authorities during an operation in the Aegean Sea involving aircraft and vessels, authorities said.