Cyprus police rescue 27 Syrian migrants off northern coast

NICOSIA, Cyprus – A Cyprus official says police have rescued 27 Syrian migrants from a speedboat found drifting off the east Mediterranean island’s northwestern coast.

Police spokesman Michalis Ioannou told The Associated Press that a patrol boat towed the speedboat to harbour on Tuesday after its captain allegedly abandoned the craft on a jet ski.

Ioannou says the 16 men, six women and five children on board had departed from Turkey on Monday morning.

He says two women were taken to a hospital as a precaution. The migrants will be put up at a hotel and taken to a reception centre just outside the Cyprus capital, Nicosia, on Wednesday.

Cyprus lies about 100 miles (160 kilometres) off Syria’s Mediterranean coast, but has not had the large inflow of refugees and migrants that Greece has.