Emotional medical staff on the Greek island of Chios have spoken of frantic efforts to identify the parents of injured children after an overnight collision between a coast guard patrol boat and a speedboat carrying migrants.

A collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek coast guard patrol vessel off the eastern Aegean island of Chios late Tuesday has left at least 15 migrants dead, while a search and rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was underway in the area, the coast guard says.

For more than 50 years, Father Spyridon has prayed, worked and welcomed the faithful in a monastery carved into a cliffside high above the Aegean Sea.