The death toll from a migrant boat that sank off Syria this week has risen to 92, according to Syrian authorities, with several dozen people still missing.
There are conflicting accounts of how many people were on the boat, with some reports saying at least 120, but the latest figures say 92 people have now died.
The boat left Lebanon on Tuesday and news of the sinking started to emerge on Thursday.
Syrian authorities said victims’ relatives have started crossing from Lebanon into Syria to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies.
Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians on the boat were trying to flee crisis-hit Lebanon, which is mired in a financial crisis, in hopes of a better future in Europe.
The Lebanese pound has dropped more than 90 per cent in value and the ongoing crisis was further exacerbated by both the Cornanvirus pandemic in Lebanon and the 2020 Beirut port explosion - leaving thousands in extreme poverty.
At least 31 bodies washed ashore and the rest were recovered at sea, said Syrian news agency SANA, quoting a port official.
Mohammed Hassan Ghabbash, Syria’s health minister, said on state-run TV that 20 people were rescued and being treated at al-Basel hospital in Tartus, on the Mediterranean coast.
Around eight of those rescued are reported to be in intensive care.
One survivor being treated in hospital, Wissam Tellawi, lost two of his daughters. His wife and two sons are also missing.
Mr Tellawi's father told local Al-Jadeed TV his son had given smugglers the family's apartment in exchange for the journey.
His brother Ahmad told Agence France-Presse: "They left two days ago. My brother couldn’t afford his daily expenses or the cost of enrolling his children in school.”
The number of people who have left or tried to leave Lebanon by sea nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, the UN refugee agency told Reuters earlier this month.
It rose again by more than 70 per cent in 2022 compared with the same period last year.
The Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye said that unconfirmed reports suggested there were around 45 children on the boat and tragically none of them survived.
He said the boat was very small, made of wood and that weather conditions made the crossing tricky.
The Lebanese Army announced on Saturday morning that they arrested a man responsible for the smuggling, they also claim he confessed to the tragedy.
In April, dozens were killed when a boat heading to Italy went down three miles off Tripoli after a confrontation with Lebanon's navy. About 80 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants were on board, of whom some 40 were rescued and around 30 officially remain missing.
