MADRID (Reuters) – Four migrants died after falling from a speedboat yards from a beach in Cadiz in southern Spain, the country’s maritime rescue service said on Wednesday.
The boat was carrying a total of 27 immigrants, 23 of whom arrived alive.
Images published on social media and carried by local media, whose authenticity has not yet been confirmed by Reuters, show a black inflatable speedboat circling in heavy tides off the beach and people onboard pushing others off the side, who start to swim in the swell.
As people on the beach run to help, the boat is seen speeding away.
Another eight adult male migrants were left on the shore of Sancti Petri beach, in nearby Chiclana, who were attended to by medical personnel and the Guardia Civil police, the reports said, before three of their number were transported to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
Cadiz is on the southern tip of Spain, around 20 km (12 miles) from the North African coast.
(Reporting by David Latona, Belén Carreño and Miguel Gutiérrez; Writing by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
