The Latest: Greece searches for 60 people on smuggling boat

BELGRADE, Serbia – The Latest on the influx of asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe (all times local):

4 p.m.

Greek authorities are searching by air and sea for a boat with about 60 migrants on board that issued a distress signal off an eastern Aegean Sea island.

The coast guard said Wednesday the vessel was reported as being east of the main port of Rhodes.

Hundreds of people still reach the Greek islands every week from Turkey in smugglers’ boats. That’s despite an abrupt drop in arrivals after Balkan and other European nations closed their borders and a March deal between the European Union and Turkey to stem the westward migration flow of refugees.

About 58,000 migrants and refugees are now trapped in Greece.

Also Wednesday, unknown arsonists set fire to a central Athens building used to house dozens of refugees and other migrants. The attack caused damages but no injuries.

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11:30 a.m.

French authorities say a Sudanese migrant has died after a clash between groups of Sudanese and Afghans in the French port city of Calais, a flashpoint in Europe’s migrant drama.

The local administration said Wednesday that the man died Tuesday from a stab wound after a clash on a field on the edge of Calais, and four others were hospitalized with light injuries.

The slain man is the 11th migrant to die in Calais this year. Many died during dangerous bids to slip illegally across the English Channel to Britain; two have now been killed in clashes.

The number of migrants in Calais has soared this month — to nearly 7,000, according to official figures — even though a notoriously filthy camp was partially closed earlier this year.

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10:30 a.m.

Serbia’s defence ministry says a 20-year old Afghan migrant crossing illegally from Bulgaria has been shot dead, apparently by hunters.

The ministry said Wednesday that its border patrol heard a shot Tuesday night and then discovered six migrants, of whom one had a chest wound. He later died.

The ministry says a hunter who was at the scene was detained on suspicion that he shot the migrant.

Since the so-called Balkan migrant route was closed in March after more than 1 million used it to head for the EU last year, hundreds fleeing wars and poverty are still crossing daily from Bulgaria through Serbia to try to make it into EU-member Hungary.

UNHCR has estimated that there are currently some 4,400 migrants stuck in Serbia.