Spain searches sea for 27

Madrid - Spanish rescue ships searched yesterday for a boat carrying 27 North Africans reported missing off Spain's southern …

Madrid - Spanish rescue ships searched yesterday for a boat carrying 27 North Africans reported missing off Spain's southern coast, the latest in a rising number of would-be immigrants put at risk by the journey to Europe.

Three ships, two helicopters and a plane have scoured the coast after a relative of one of the missing alerted the Spanish coastguard on Friday that the engine of the immigrants' boat had failed, a coastguard spokesman said.

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