ISTANBUL — Five children and a woman drowned after the Greek Coast Guard intercepted a crowded boat carrying them from Lebanon to Italy and cast them adrift off southwest Turkey, Turkish authorities said late Tuesday.

Two of the dead children were babies, according to a Turkish Coast Guard statement.

In a statement, the Greek Coast Guard said it “categorically denies” the Turkish claims of its “alleged involvement in an alleged pushback incident that resulted in the death of six immigrants in the sea area of Marmaris, within Turkish territorial waters.”

A search for two more missing children and three men continued, while 73 people were rescued from life rafts found floating in the sea between Turkey’s Marmaris and the Greek island of Rhodes, Turkey’s Coast Guard said.

According to the Turkish coast guard statement, the 15-foot boat left Tripoli in Lebanon on Sept. 10 destined for Italy. The survivors said that their fuel ran out near Rhodes and they called for assistance from the Greek authorities.

They reportedly claimed they were taken aboard a Greek Coast Guard boat, where their valuables were taken and they were placed on four lift rafts close to Turkish territorial waters and set adrift.

Turkey and migrant rights bodies frequently accuse Greece of conducting pushbacks – summary and illegal deportations of new arrivals back to Turkey without allowing them to apply for asylum. Athens denies the claims and says it robustly protects its borders.

Turkish authorities said they were alerted to the group shortly after midnight on Tuesday and initially discovered 66 people drifting on three rafts.

Told of another raft by the rescued people, the coast guard dispatched a plane, helicopter and another boat. They found seven survivors and the six bodies on the fourth raft and were informed of the missing people.