At least 32 people have died off the coast of southern Greece after a fishing boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized and sank, authorities said Wednesday. A large search and rescue operation was launched in the area. Authorities said 104 people have been rescued so far following the nighttime incident some 75 kilometers (46 miles) southwest of Greece's southern Peloponnese region. Also Read: At least 39 migrants dead in bus crash in Panama Four of the survivors were hospitalized with symptoms of hypothermia. It was unclear how many passengers might remain missing at sea after the 32 bodies were recovered, the Greek coast guard said. Six coast guard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, an air force helicopter, several private vessels and a drone from the European Union border protection agency, Frontex, were taking part in the ongoing search. Also Read: Migrant boat breaks up off Italian coast, killing nearly 60 The Italy-bound boat is believed to have sailed from the Tobruk area in eastern Libya. The Italian coast guard first alerted Greek authorities and Frontex about the approaching vessel on Tuesday. Smugglers are increasingly taking larger boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to try to avoid local coast guard patrols. Also Read: Death toll from Greece train crash rises to 57 On Sunday, 90 migrants on a U.S.-flagged yacht were rescued in the area after they made a distress call. Separately Wednesday, a yacht with 81 migrants on board was towed to a port on the south coast of Greece's island of Crete after authorities received a distress call. Also Read: Greece: 3 dead after boat with migrants hits rocks  

At least 39 migrants were killed and about 20 were injured early Wednesday when the bus they were riding in western Panama tumbled off a cliff, authorities said. Officials did not immediately report nationalities, but the migrants had crossed the treacherous Darien Gap from Colombia. The Panamanian government typically moves migrants who have crossed the Darien to a camp near the Costa Rica border on the other side of Panama. The migrants pay for the bus tickets, but the buses are only for migrants. There are usually two drivers, as well as personnel from the National Immigration Service. Samira Gozaine, director of Panama’s National Immigration Service, said it appeared the bus driver had passed the entrance to a shelter in Gualaca and when he tried to turn around to get back on the highway, the bus collided with another bus and went off the cliff. Images from the scene showed a broken guardrail on a curve in a forested area just a couple hundred yards beyond the shelter. The bus was carrying 66 migrants to the Los Planes shelter. Also read: Official: 17 people killed in bus-truck crash in NW Pakistan Ambulances carried the injured to the nearest hospital in David. “This news is regrettable for Panama and for the region,” President Laurentino Cortizo said via Twitter. It was the worst accident involving migrants in Panama in at least a decade. The flow of migrants through Panama surged in recent years as more risked the dangerous crossing as they tried to make their way north to the United States. Last year, nearly 250,000 migrants crossed the Darien jungle – the majority Venezuelans – a record number that nearly doubled the total from the previous year. In January, more than 24,000 migrants crossed Darien, mostly Haitians and Ecuadoreans, according to Panamanian authorities.

Spanish authorities said Sunday that they had recovered the bodies of four migrants from a boat along with 19 survivors who had taken the treacherous route from West Africa to the Canary Islands. Spain’s maritime rescue service said that its crews had responded to an alarm call by a fishing boat that had located the migrants in a flimsy craft unfit for the high seas. Rescue helicopters airlifted groups of the migrants to Tenerife, including six people who were in poor health and suffering from dehydration. The Atlantic crossing from the Western coast of Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has become a major route for migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing conflict, violence and economic plight exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 2,400 people have reached the Canaries in the first three months of this year. Also read: Migrants evade Libyan coast guard to reach Europe Last year, 23,000 people arrived by boat to the archipelago and nearly 850 others have died or gone missing along the way, according to the U.N. migration agency’s Missing Migrants Project. Also read:  24 migrants feared dead in boat capsize near Libya