A foreign national in police custody jumped off a passenger ferryboat’s deck in the early morning hours of Saturday as he was being transported from the eastern Aegean Island of Lesbos (Lesvos) to the mainland via a stop on Chios, where he was to face a judicial magistrate.
Police guards accompanying a group of detained individuals notified the ship’s master immediately after the incident, with the vessel stopping and search and rescue operations commencing.
The specific individual had been arrested in early July last month by coast guard officers on Lesbos in connection with a migrant smuggling case. He was remanded in custody and was to be transported to the Korydallos prison southwest of downtown Athens.
Later information said the man is a Turkish national.
A prosecutor later ordered that the four accompanying police officers be detained pending a further investigation.
A graph reportedly showing the ferryboat Ariadne’s search for the missing man.
