A boat sank off the southern coast of Greece, leaving at least 78 people dead and hundreds more still missing at sea.
According to local media, the ship capsized 45 miles south-west of the Peloponnese region with 700 passengers on board.
Since then, dozens more bodies have been pulled from the river, and the awful death toll is rising every hour.
The boat, which is thought to have been loaded with migrants and to have left from the port city of Tobruk in eastern Libya, is thought to have been travelling towards Italy.
A search and rescue operation is underway, but it remains unclear how many are missing at sea, the Greek coast guard said.
Authorities confirmed that 104 people have been rescued so, including four who were taken to hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
Six coast guard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, a helicopter, and several private vessels from the European Union border protection agency Frontex are taking part in the ongoing search.
The Italian coast guard first alerted authorities and Frontex about the approaching vessel on Tuesday.
Traffickers are increasingly taking dangerously overloaded boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to try to avoid local coast guard patrols.
This comes after 90 migrants on a US-flagged yacht were rescued in the area after they made a distress call on Sunday.
Separately, a yacht with more than 70 migrants on board was towed to a port on the south coast of Greece’s island of Crete after authorities received a distress call.