Nine dead and 50 missing after a canoe capsizes off the coast of El Hierro

Emergency services in El Hierro have recovered nine bodies and are searching for at least 50 more bodies after a canoe capsized last night, from which they have been able to rescue 27 people alive, off the coast of the Las Playas area, in the municipality of Valverde.

All the occupants of the overturned canoe were men and one of the bodies recovered corresponds to that of an adolescent of about 12 to 15 years old, according to EFE sources from the island's emergency services, who also specify that of the 27 people who have been saved, 25 were transferred to La Restinga and two have been evacuated by helicopter.

They have also detailed that the occupants of the canoe themselves alerted 112 of their whereabouts and that the rescue took place at around 3 in the morning.

The boat was carrying 84 men, several of them teenagers, who had left Mauritania for the Canary Islands, according to a relative of one of the occupants who told Caminando Fronteras.

This NGO received a call from this person last night at 1:30 a.m. in which he said that several of the canoe's passengers were calling their families to say that they could see the coast and that the engine had stopped.

According to this relative, in addition to the teenagers, at least four children between the ages of 7 and 11 were traveling on the boat.

At this time, Civil Guard and Maritime Rescue personnel are in the Las Playas area searching for more bodies.

In total, three canoes arrived in El Hierro last night, including the one that capsized, and a fourth boat is being searched for that they have not been able to locate at the moment.

The first one that arrived in La Restinga at midnight was carrying a total of 131 people, including 107 men and 15 women, as well as five children and four babies, according to the same emergency sources.

The second corresponds to the nine dead and 50 missing and the third arrived at around 7:30 a.m. with 20 people, including 18 men, one woman and one child.

Ten people from the three canoes received health care in the port of La Restinga.

A boat was also rescued last night in Lanzarote with 57 people, three of them women, who were transferred to Puerto Naos.