More than 20 people died while traveling in a canoe south of Tenerife that contained the lifeless body of a child about 12 or 13 years old, emergency services reported on Saturday. According to survivors’ reports, the remaining bodies had already been thrown into the sea. In total, 221 survivors of the more than 240 migrants who set sail from Gambia landed at the port of Los Cristianos in southern Tenerife, according to the same sources, who said 15 were evacuated to hospitals and another hundred received medical care at the dock .
The warning about the Cayuco came Friday afternoon from a fishing boat that reported it was on an irregular course. It was later stopped about 82 miles off the coast of Granadilla de Abona in southern Tenerife by the Sasemar 101 rescue aircraft. The Guardia Civil patrol boat Río Tajo and the sea rescue vessel Guardamar Calíope set out to rescue the migrants, whose crew lifted them on board at around 11:20 p.m., as well as the lifeless body of the deceased child.
Four of those rescued were semi-conscious and were evacuated from the sea rescue ship to Tenerife North Airport in the Helimer 206 helicopter. From the airfield, two of them were transferred to the University Hospital of the Canary Islands in San Cristóbal de La Laguna and the other two to the La Candelaria Hospital in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 112 reported.
The rescue ship arrived with the remaining survivors at 5:25 a.m. this Saturday at the port of Los Cristianos, where they were treated by employees of the Canary Islands Rescue Service and the Red Cross.
Six of the disembarked migrants were referred to the Hospital del Sur in Tenerife and another five to the Hospiten Sur, both in Arona, due to their delicate health conditions. From the latter, an adult and a minor were later transferred to La Candelaria Hospital.
Another hundred migrants received medical care at the dock. They stated that the canoe set sail from Gambia and that about twenty bodies were thrown overboard during the journey.
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