At least 13 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of the Greek island of Crete.

The coastguard said it had rescued 18 people, all of whom were Sudanese nationals. Four of the survivors were taken to hospital, including a toddler.

Authorities said it was not immediately clear what caused the deaths, but they believe the boat had been at sea for days and had struggled to reach shore due to strong winds.

Crete remains one of several key gateways for migrants attempting to reach Europe from the Middle East and North Africa, with more than 22,000 of the 86,400 sea arrivals so far this year landing in Crete alone.

One unnamed coastguard official who spoke to news agency Reuters on condition of anonymity said the survivors were "shivering from the cold".

The migrants' boat was spotted by a Moroccan-flagged container ship about 15 nautical miles (28km) off Crete's coast.

The Greek coastguard rescued another 187 people in three separate incidents off the coast of Greece on Monday.

More than 37,000 migrants have arrived in Greece so far this year, UN figures show, already surpassing the number who arrived in the entirety of 2025.

The Greek government has announced plans to deal with the influx, including opening a temporary housing complex near the Cretan capital, Heraklion.

Greece was at the heart of Europe's migration crisis in 2015-16, when nearly a million people arrived on its islands, mostly from Turkey.

Arrivals later fell as border controls tightened, but crossings from Libya have surged in recent years, particularly among people fleeing conflict in Sudan and seeking better economic opportunities from countries including Bangladesh.