Migrants protesting at Moria camp in Lesvos clashed with police and set fires on Sunday, tragically killing a mother and a child.
A burned body was brought to a local hospital and there was information about a second death, police said. The protesters were demanding to be transferred to the Greek mainland.
Greek police spokesman Lieutenant Theodoros Chronopoulos told the Associated Press that the migrants set fire at an olive grove outside the camp just before 5 p.m. local and, minutes later at a housing unit inside the camp, which was destroyed while flames spread to adjacent housing units.
"The situation is tense," Lesvos Mayor Stratis Kytelis said. "There is information about a dead mother and her child. We haven't been able to confirm that yet."
A forensic examination is underway of the burnt corpse of a woman that was transferred from Moria to Lesvos General Hospital, while police are trying to reach the burnt housing containers where a second corpse, of the child, is reportedly located, police sources said.
Additional police forces are being deployed to Lesvos to help contain clashes between camp residents and local police.
Moria was evacuated to allow for the intervention of the fire brigade, while the camp director and the police are gathering information to decipher the cause of the fire.
Police also announced that Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Lefteris Oikonomou, a former chief of the Greek police, are going to Lesvos to asses the situation.
About 12,000 migrants, most of them Afghans, are currently housed in Moria, which is designed for 3,000.
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