AT LEAST seven occupants of a migrant raft which washed up on Canary Island shores today (Monday) have died and an eighth is in a critical condition in hospital, regional emergency services report.
Guardia Civil officers located 18 survivors, who are all said to be in good health, and another two who needed medical treatment but whose conditions were not life-threatening.
A lifeguard on Lanzarote's Bastián beach in Costa Teguise alerted authorities at exactly 11.57 this morning when he spotted the large blow-up boat out to sea.
Five bodies of men who had died from hypothermia, exposure and drowning were recovered from inside the craft, and a sixth body found in the water.
Paramedics rescued two other men from the sea, both of whom were drowning, but one died at the scene and another, who was in cardiac arrest, is in Arrecife hospital after CPR successfully restarted his heart.
Surviving passengers say there had been 27 of them on board, all male and of North African origin, when they had set out.
Some of them had jumped in the water, fearing discovery, and tried to swim ashore.
This is the latest in a string of tragedies as North and Sub-Saharan Africans attempt the dangerous crossing to European soil, with Spain being one of the main gateways.
Exactly a year ago, a raft carrying eight sub-Saharans sailed into the Spanish-owned city-province of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast, the northernmost point of the African continent, with the body of a woman among them who had died from hypothermia.
In June 207, a dinghy with five bodies of sub-Saharans washed up on the shores of Cartagena (Murcia).
And a month ago, a dead sub-Saharan was among the five passengers on a jerry-built craft which reached the shores of San Roque (Cádiz province), whilst the others bailed out and swam ashore, being caught when they reached dry land.
