POLICE SEARCH FOR OWNERS OF ABANDONED BOAT WITH 227 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ONBOARD

Police are searching for the two owners of a boat they abandoned 150 metres off the coast of Tenerife on Saturday, with 227 sub-Saharan illegal immigrants on board. It is believed that the vessel left Guinea a month ago and worked its way up the West African coast, picking up more people along the way. There were five women but no children on board. The drifting boat was first spotted by fishermen, who alerted the authorities. Rescuers removed the sickest immigrants from the boat and took them hospital. They were suffering from hypothermia and hunger and thirst. They told the rescuers they hadn't eaten a solid meal for almost a month, having survived on sips of water, sugar and sweets. But even the water had begun to run out. The other immigrants on board had to wait while the boat was towed into the port at Santa Cruz de Tenerife by a tug. It's the largest number of immigrants to arrive in the Canary Islands in one batch.