17 Syrian refugees drown off Turkish coast; 20 others rescued, official says

A Turkish police officer tries to comfort Syrian migrant Hayat Sabir Burhan, himself a survivor, as the bodies of his 3-year-old son Yusuf and his wife Ahlan, 32, arrive at the hospital's morgue in the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. Turkey's coast guard says that 17 migrants have drowned after a vessel carrying them toward Greece sank in the Aegean Sea. A further 21 people - mostly Syrians - were rescued. Bodrum, long a popular tourist destination, has become a key jumping off point for migrants seeking to reach Europe. (AP Photo/Kent TV) (The Associated Press)

Turkish police and hospital workers upload coffins with the bodies of migrants that drowned while trying to cross by boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, to the hospital's morgue at the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. Turkey's coast guard says that 17 migrants have drowned after a vessel carrying them toward Greece sank in the Aegean Sea. A further 21 people - mostly Syrians - were rescued. Bodrum, long a popular tourist destination, has become a key jumping off point for migrants seeking to reach Europe. (AP Photo/Hamdi Yorur) (The Associated Press)

Syrian refugees arrive on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on a inflatable dinghy, Sunday Sept. 27, 2015. More than 260,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Greece so far this year, most reaching the country's eastern islands on flimsy rafts or boats from the nearby Turkish coast.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (The Associated Press)

An official says 17 Syrians have drowned after their boat sank off the Turkish coast on its way to the Greek island of Leros.

Gov. Amir Cicek of Mugla province told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the Turkish Coast Guard rescued 20 other Syrian refugees early on Sunday. No one was missing or unaccounted for.

Cicek said the 37 Syrians had boarded the boat at the holiday resort of Gumusluk on the Bodrum peninsula. It sank soon after leaving the coast.

The governor said an investigation had been launched into the incident.