A YACHT and a dinghy crammed with migrants trying to enter Greece off Samos, close to the Turkish mainland, have capsized in the eastern Aegean Sea leaving at least 22 dead, including four children, and potentially several more missing.

The vessels had been trying to enter Greece when they overturned before dawn on Monday off the coast of Samos. It was not immediately clear what caused the overloaded craft to capsize.

The Greek coastguard said 36 people – 32 men, three women and a child – were rescued, and two of them – a man and a child – were airlifted to a hospital on the mainland.

The survivors were identified by the coastguard as 23 Somalis, nine Syrians and three Eritreans. The child’s nationality or the nationalities of those who died were not immediately known.

Coastguard officials recovered the bodies of two women, a man and a boy from the sea, and later found a further 18 bodies – including three children – inside the yacht after it was towed to Samos.

Survivors told the coastguard that between 60 and 65 people had been on the 10-metre (30-ft) yacht and the two-metre (six-ft) dinghy that had set off from Turkey.

“We can’t give a precise number of missing people with any certainty,” said a coastguard spokesman, Nikos Lagadianos.

Coastguard vessels, fishing boats and two search-and-rescue helicopters were combing the area for survivors or bodies. A nearby cruise ship helped for several hours in the morning.

Fatal accidents are frequent as migrants risk the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey. Before Monday’s incident, 21 people had drowned in similar incidents since the beginning of the year. At least 21 people died and six are still missing after a similar accident in December 2012.

Over the weekend, the Greek coastguard rescued about 250 migrants from the sea.