A GREEK vessel opened fire on a Turkish trawler off Turkey's Mediterranean coast yesterday, injuring one person, officials from both countries said.
The Greek vessel hit the Turkish fishing boat just off the port of Kas, injuring a sailor who was later taken to hospital, the Anatolia news agency quoted Mr Gurkan Karaman, a Kas official, as saying. Kas is located just two nautical miles from the Greek island of Kastelorizo (known as Meis to the Turks).
Turkish diplomatic sources said Ankara would lodge a strong protest over the incident, adding that Greece's ambassador to Turkey, Mr Dimitrios Nezeritis, was expected to be summoned to the foreign ministry to be handed a protest note.
But in Athens, a Greek government spokesman said the Greek vessel a rubber inflatable had shot at the Turkish boat because the latter had just deposited eight illegal immigrants on a Greek island in the region.
A Greek government spokesman said clandestine immigration is a major problem between Greece and Turkey.