At least fifteen migrants have died after a small boat sank off the Greek island of Lesbos.
Twenty people have also been reported missing after their dinghy came into difficultly in the central Aegean Sea near Turkey in the early hours of Thursday amid high winds.
Around forty passengers are reported to have been on the boat during its night-time journey. Many of those on board were women who appeared "utterly panicked", coastguard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas told TV ER.
A Greek coastguard vessel and an air force helicopter were dispatched to the scene to conduct a search and rescue.
Five people are confirmed to have been taken to safety by authorities, though strong winds reportedly added difficulty to rescue efforts.
The incident came as a search was being conducted along the coastline of Lesbos for migrants who could have reached the shore, which turned up three people trapped in a remote area.
On Wednesday, Greek authorities also rescued 30 migrants whose boat sank after hitting a rocky area in stormy waters near the island of Kythira on Wednesday, the coastguard said.
A huge search and rescue operation was required to cope with around 100 migrants who had boarded the vessel, with high winds also being felt in the area.
Kythira is located to the south of Greece's mainland.
A coastguard official said: "Thirty people have been rescued so far. The operation is ongoing amid adverse weather conditions"
During the 2015-2016 crisis, 4,000 people drowned in the Aegean sea and more than a million people reached Greece.
Since then, Athens has toughened its policy by increasing sea patrols, extending a border fence and constructing camps with heightened security measures on its islands near Turkey.
European Union's top migration official Ylva Johansson told Greece in June to stop "violent" deportations of migrants or risk losing funds.
