A cayuco with 68 people on board, two of them dead, was intercepted in the early hours of yesterday morning about one kilometre off San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria).
The cayuco was first spotted by a pleasure craft in the area around San Bartolomé de Tirajana. When the Marine Rescue Service intercepted the boat they discovered that two of the passengers were dead and that several others were suffering from hyperthermia and severe dehydration.
The passengers, all of North African origin and including fifteen children, were transferred to the Marine Rescue vessel ‘Menkalinan’ and taken to Puerto de Arguineguín in the municipality of Mógan.