Turkey's coast guard said seven survivors and 24 bodies had been pulled from the waters of the Bosporus on Monday.
Turkey's coast guard said seven survivors and 24 bodies had been pulled from the waters of the Bosporus on Monday.
Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty

Story highlights

Seven survivors and 24 bodies pulled from water, Anadolu news agency reports

12 children were among 43 people on board the boat

Nine were carrying Afghan passports, Turkey's transport minister tells the agency

CNN  — 

More than 20 people died after a boat carrying migrants sank near Istanbul on Monday, Turkish officials said.

Seven survivors and 24 bodies were pulled from the water, the semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.

Twelve children were among 43 people on board the boat, which sank in the far north of the Bosphorus, near the Black Sea, Anadolu reported.

Nine people were carrying Afghan passports, Anadolu quoted Turkey’s Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan as saying.

“Search and rescue operations are underway to find unaccounted people,” Elvan said.

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A local fisherman told Anadolu the dead and survivors had been wearing life jackets.

The Bosphorus is a strait that runs through the city of Istanbul, dividing Turkey’s Asian and European shores and linking the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.

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CNN’s Susannah Cullinane in London and Khushbu Shah in Atlanta contributed to this report.