Cypriot Army News

A search and rescue operation was underway off Cyprus on Thursday for 300 people stranded at sea who authorities suspect may be refugees from Syria. Authorities said they received a distress signal early on Thursday morning from a small vessel sailing some 50 nautical miles (92 km) south-west of the town of Paphos, on Cyprus's western coast. "We estimate about 300 people are on board the boat, most of them women and children," a ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Photos taken from a Cypriot army helicopter showed dozens of people sitting on the main deck of what appeared to be a commercial trawler. Weather conditions in the area were bad. The condition of the boat's occupants was not immediately known.