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Rubber boat with Lebanese family of 12 trying to get to Europe sinks in Aegean Sea, 3 survive

Associated Press
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Relatives of the Safwan family mourn at the family house in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 after a rubber boat carrying a family of 12 of their relatives to European shores sunk, drowning five while four are still missing. The Lebanese family tragedy highlights how the flood of refugees is encouraging more disenchanted around the region to take the journey to Europe, expected to get riskier in winter. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

Relatives of the Safwan family mourn at the family house in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 after a rubber boat carrying a family of 12 of their relatives to European shores sunk, drowning five while four are still missing. The Lebanese family tragedy highlights how the flood of refugees is encouraging more disenchanted around the region to take the journey to Europe, expected to get riskier in winter. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

Relatives of the Safwan family mourn at the family house in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 after a rubber boat carrying a family of 12 of their relatives to European shores sunk, drowning five while four are still missing. The Lebanese family tragedy highlights how the flood of refugees is encouraging more disenchanted around the region to take the journey to Europe, expected to get riskier in winter. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

Relatives say a rubber boat carrying a Lebanese family of 12 to European shores has sunk. Five family members died, three survived and four are missing.

Kelly Safwan, 22, says she learned the boat carrying her family sank soon after it left Turkey because it was punctured. Her father and mother, two young sisters, her brother and his pregnant wife, her sister and three children, her uncle and his son set off from Turkey late Monday.

The family's home in Beirut's Ouazi working-class neighborhood is packed with mourners Thursday, heavy with grief and anxiously waiting for news on the missing four.

The family tragedy highlights how the flood of refugees is encouraging disenchanted people from around the region to make the journey to Europe, expected to get riskier in winter.