At least seven die after migrant boat sinks off Greek island of Lesbos

At least seven migrants died, including one boy, one girl and two women, when their boat sank on Thursday off the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece's coastguard said.

The boat was detected by a patrolling coastguard vessel at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT) north of Lesbos.

So far 23 migrants have been rescued and a search and rescue operation was still ongoing, a coastguard official said. It was not immediately clear how many people may have been on the boat.

Greece, in the southeast corner of the European Union, has long been a favored gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 2015 nearly 1 million people landed on its islands.

Last year, about 54,000 migrants reached Greece, the second largest number in southern Europe behind Italy. The vast majority of them arrived by sea, according to data from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.