Fishermen spotted a boat with 20 corpses in the northeast of Brazil, Kazinform informs.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Fishermen spotted a small boat full of rotting corpses off Brazil's northeastern coast Saturday, local news reports said.

Brazil's attorney general's office said in a statement that it had sent a forensic team to the area to determine where the bodies and the boat came from.

“According to some information, there may be about 20 bodies in the boat,” the statement of the General Prosecutor's Office said. The department announced that it will initiate a criminal and civil case related to this incident.

The boat was floating off the coast of Para state, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the state capital Belem.

This is not the first time that fishermen have spotted ships carrying dead bodies in the western Atlantic Ocean. In 2021, seven boats full of dead bodies washed up in Brazil and the Eastern Caribbean.

An investigation by the Associated Press and local authorities revealed that some of these boats were carrying the bodies of African migrants who had tried to reach the Canary Islands but failed and spent weeks in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Associated Press