Ambulances parked by a coast guard boat as officials unload bodies that drowned after a boat carrying them capsized off the Turkish coast in the Aegean Sea. AFP

Twenty-two migrants including seven children have drowned after a boat capsized off the Turkish coast, local officials said on Friday. Two people were rescued by the Turkish coastguard and another two managed to make it out of the water on their own, officials said. The victims' nationalities were not yet known.

The boat capsized off Turkey's largest island, called Gokceada or Imbros, which is located in the Aegean Sea off the coast of the northwestern province of Canakkale, near Greece's Lemnos island.

"The Turkish coastguard found the bodies of 22 people including seven children," the local governor's office said in a statement. The search and rescue operation was backed by one airplane, two helicopters, a drone, 18 boats and 502 personnel, it added.

Turkey is hosting nearly four million refugees, mostly Syrians. Many migrants try to reach the Greek islands from Turkey's western coasts hoping to eventually reach prosperous European Union (EU) countries, with many dying in the perilous sea crossing.

Officials said the boat began sinking overnight and on Friday many ambulances were standing by at the port of Kabatepe near Gokceada. There has been an increase in migrant crossing attempts in the waters between Turkey and Greece in recent weeks.

The Turkish coastguard indicated that it had rescued or intercepted several hundred migrants, including children, attempting to cross to Greece since the start of the week.

Agence France-Presse