BREAKING NEWS

Child on boat drifting in Mediterranean for days dies - Cypriot official

A child discovered unconscious on a boat drifting for days in the eastern Mediterranean has died, health authorities in Cyprus said on Thursday.

The girl was among a group of 60 Syrians who were located by a Cypriot search and rescue team on a heavily loaded fishing boat 30 nautical miles off Cyprus on Wednesday morning. They had been at sea since Jan. 18, after sailing from Lebanon.

"Unfortunately, one of the three children has died. It was a sudden death caused by cardiac arrest," a spokesperson for Cyprus's national health organization told Alpha Cyprus TV.