Turkish rescuers were losing hope of finding survivors after a vessel carrying up to 60 illegal immigrants sank off the popular tourist resort of Marmaris on the country's southwestern coast. Greek officials in Athens announced that a Greek ferry had found four bodies on the coast of a nearby Greek island, while Turkey said that rescue efforts since late Saturday had so far turned up bits of wreckage but no sign of the vessel's ill-fated passengers. "The coastguard is pursuing efforts to find the people who are believed to be missing, but they have not come across anyone either dead or alive," Huseyin Aksoy -- the governor of Mugla province where Marmaris is located -- told the NTV news channel. Turkish authorities were alerted to the accident when a Turkish-registered passenger ship picked up an Iraqi national from the waters late Saturday and brought him to Marmaris. The 37-year-old Iraqi man told authorities that he was among the dozens of Jordanese, Iraqi and Afghan nationals who set out from Marmaris aboard a 14 metre- (46 foot-) long wooden vessel in a bid to illegally travel to the nearby Greek island of Rhodes, according to the Anatolia news agency. "This man told us that the ship began taking in water and sank when they were nearing Rhodes. He apparently survived by holding onto a piece of wood," Aksoy said. Earlier Sunday, a local Turkish official told AFP that two boats from the coastguard, assisted by a helicopter, were sent out to look for possible survivors, but all they could find were life jackets and a small part of the ship's steering system. Aksoy told NTV that one of the boats had been pulled back after weather conditions worsened as the light began to fade. The governor added that Greek authorities had been alerted to the tragedy and had also began search-and-rescue efforts, involving helicopters and sea vessels. In Athens, an official from the Greek merchant navy ministry told AFP that a Greek ferry plying a route in the Aegean sea found four bodies on the coast of Symi, an island in Greek waters near Rhodes and lying just 7.5 miles from Marmaris. But the official said that Turkish authorities had not yet made any requests for help from Greece. Turkish officials believe the vessel went down some nine nautical miles off Marmaris, but it was not immediately clear when the ship sank and how many people were aboard at the time. The Iraqi survivor was quoted by Anatolia as saying that there were 55 people on the ship, while Marmaris Governor Cemalettin Ozdemir told the agency that the number was around 60. Turkey is a major route for people-smuggling from Asia into Europe, and illegal immigrants are detained on a daily basis. Immigrants who manage to reach Turkey mostly try to cross to Greece by land or brave sea journeys to Greece or Italy, often aboard unseaworthy vessels, at risk to their lives. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Map locating where a boat carrying illegal immigrants is thought to have sunk. Turkish rescuers were still searching for possible survivors after a ship carrying up to 60 illegal immigrants sank off a popular tourist resort. (AFP)